Damien Abad (PPE). – (FR) Mr President, amid a climate of acute economic crisis, this is a balanced, responsible budget that establishes several priorities.

The European Union needs competitiveness, mutually beneficial international trade terms, and producers; but it also needs strong industrial, research and energy policies, and it needs Europe to speak with a united voice in the world.

I also believe we need a budget that, as other Members have emphasised, maintains the European food aid programme for the most deprived – this goes without saying – and which focuses on young people, who have been among the main victims of this crisis.

By increasing our support for lifelong learning by 5%, we are sending out a helpful signal, and we must do the same for mobility, voluntary work and support for vehicles of change for Europe’s young people, with the Youth on the Move programme. We must also develop it further, by introducing a fully fledged Erasmus scheme for apprentices.

Lastly, in the face of the economic crisis, we need a proper federal budget, with own resources raised by the financial transaction tax for example, as proposed by President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel.

Amid an increasingly difficult international climate, we need to stand firm, and make the budget a tool for confirming and strengthening Europe as a citizens’ Europe, a workers’ Europe and a producers’ Europe.