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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ««« « « 2004 « « 2009 « « ««« Temporary Committee on Policy Challenges and Budgetary Means of the enlarged Union 2007-2013 PROVISIONAL 2004/2209(INI) 31.3.2005 DRAFT REPORT on the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Financial Perspectives 2007 - 2013 (2004/2209(INI)) Temporary Committee on Policy Challenges and Budgetary Means of the enlarged Union 2007-2013 Rapporteur: Reimer Böge PART C: OPINIONS PR\552780EN.doc PE 353.393v01-00 EN EN PR_INI CONTENTS Page OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ................................................3 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENT .....................................................7 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE ..................................13 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON BUDGETARY CONTROL.....................................17 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC AND MONETARY AFFAIRS ..........23 OPINION of the COMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS ................27 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY...................................................................................................................31 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON INDUSTRY, RESEARCH AND ENERGY ............40 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE INTERNAL MARKET AND CONSUMER PROTECTION.....................................................................................................................46 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT AND TOURISM .............................50 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ..............................56 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT61 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES ............................................................71 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON CULTURE AND EDUCATION .............................77 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS .............................................................................................................................83 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS .............................88 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY.91 PE 353.393v01-00 2/94 PR\552780EN.doc EN 17.3.2005 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS for the Temporary Committee on Policy Challenges and Budgetary Means of the Enlarged Union 2007-2013 on policy challenges and budgetary means of the enlarged Union 2007-2013 (2004/2209(INI)) Draftswoman: Véronique De Keyser PA_NonLeg SUGGESTIONS The Committee on Foreign Affairs calls on the Temporary Committee on Policy Challenges and Budgetary Means of the Enlarged Union 2007-2013, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution: 1. Fully supports the ambitions concerning external relations set out in the Constitutional Treaty aimed at making the European Union an effective, visible, credible and coherent global partner; calls for the Union’s external actions to be considered a priority when the financial perspective for 2007-2013 is drawn up and for the Union’s budget resources to be scaled up in order to respond fully to the international responsibilities and obligations incumbent upon the Union while allowing sufficient room for manoeuvre in an uncertain international environment; reiterates its call for the budgetisation of the EDF; underlines, however, that the integration of the EDF into the EU budget must count as separate and additional funding, and must not prejudice the calls for an increase in the external relations budget; 2. Welcomes the Commission’s efforts to rationalise and simplify the instruments for external operations available to the Union; considers, however, that the Commission’s proposals for the geographic and thematic distribution of these instruments and their respective funding fail to correct the existing imbalance in foreign policy expenditure and fail to take sufficient account either of the political priorities expressed in previous European Parliament opinions or of the full range of challenges facing the Union, whether they concern enlargement, the neighbourhood policy or other regions of the world such as Africa, Latin America , the USA and Asia; considers that, in a global, integrated foreign policy, the instruments used for foreign policy, on the one hand, and for humanitarian aid, on the other, must be transparent and complementary; 3. Questions the merit of a foreign policy which neglects traditional external policies and instead restricts its activities to development or crisis management, whereas these three dimensions are inseparable and complementary; recalls that there is a plan to set up a European external action service, which should be provided with adequate budgetary PR\552780EN.doc 3/94 PE 353.393v01-00 EN resources; states its intention to ensure full transparency on the financing of the reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq by creating specific budget lines on these items; 4. Notes with concern that under the guise of more efficient bureaucratic management the real effect of the Commission’s proposals will be to reduce both the visibility and transparency of external actions in certain areas and also the European Parliament’s power of ex ante control over the Union’s external action, particularly as regards developing the strategy and defining the priorities of the Union, which is quite contrary to the spirit of the Constitutional Treaty; notes that the rationalisation of the instruments operated by the Commission hardly provides the Union's external action with the visibility that the reform of the EU’s budget structure actually sought to do; calls on the Commission to present its plans for the future budgetary structure accompanying the financial instruments in order to give concrete indications as to how Parliament can exercise its full budgetary rights in this respect; 5. Although it welcomes the fact that two of the four new instruments (the ENPI and the DCECI) are initially subject to codecision, expresses reservations about the extensive powers afforded to the Commission, which mean that decisions on implementation of the regulation could be made without referring to Parliament, with current proposals serving as the legal basis for all future actions, making new legislation unnecessary and potentially sidelining Parliament altogether; stresses in this regard that simplification must not be at the expense of accountability and transparency; believes that the codecision procedure, while taking account of the preceding considerations, should apply to the regulation establishing an instrument for stability which, as well as incorporating a number of Community competences, also deals with civilian crisis management and contributes to the overall goal of developing and consolidating democracy and the rule of law; recalls the close links between the civilian and military aspects of crisis management and regrets the fact that CFSP operations, decided by the Council on a case-by-case basis, were not included in the general revision of the external action instruments, one of the aims of which should be to enhance the Community dimension; therefore calls on the Commission to reconsider its proposal concerning the instrument for stability and to amend the legal basis for the proposal, which lies not in Article 308 of the EC Treaty and Article 203 of the Euratom Treaty but in Articles 179 and 181a of the EC Treaty; points out that if the Commission intends to retain nuclear safety issues in its proposal it should present a separate proposal based solely on Article 203 of the Euratom Treaty; believes that more thought should be given to the distinction between immediate crisis management (emergency mechanisms) and medium-term management, on which Parliament should be consulted; 6. Considers that the codecision procedure should apply to the Regulation establishing an Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance which - besides having as its main objective the assistance of candidate and potential candidate countries in their preparations for accession - concerns almost exclusively developing countries, and has a substantial development component that is not merely incidental; therefore calls on the Commission to amend the legal basis for the proposal, which lies not solely in Article 181a of the EC Treaty but in Articles 179 and 181a of the EC Treaty; 7. Cannot accept the fact that the Commission’s proposals effectively exclude Parliament PE 353.393v01-00 4/94 PR\552780EN.doc EN from the formal consultation process for defining programmes and priorities in the regulations establishing the financial instruments for the external relations policy by laying down only a general framework and leaving it up to the Commission and the Council to decide alone on the strategies and the implementation of the instruments; considers that now is an opportune time for an in-depth re-evaluation of the comitology rules governing the financial instruments, with the aim of enhancing their legitimacy by laying down clear criteria and increasing Parliament’s participation, particularly considering that codecision is or should be the legal basis for those instruments; 8. Is concerned at Parliament’s lack of control over the distribution and allocation of funds to the different candidate countries within an instrument for pre-accession (IPA) managed on a simple consultative basis; 9. Emphasises the significance of a smooth transition to the new financial