Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2004
125 Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Finance his views on proposals for cuts in the finance contributions made to the EU by member states; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4757/04]
Amharc ar fhreagra141 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance if he has adopted a view in regard to the financial envelope for the EU budget and the role of the European Parliament in joint decision making in this regard. [4687/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 125 and 141 together.
As Deputies will be aware, the Commission on 10 February last published its communication on its proposals for the future financing of the EU in the post-2006 period. The communication initiates a negotiation on the multi-annual framework for the EU budget, otherwise known as the financial perspective, for the period after 2006. The current framework, known as Agenda 2000, covers the period 2000-06. It took some two years to negotiate and it can be expected that there will be a similarly protracted negotiation on the proposals now made in the Commission communication.
The first significant consideration of the communication will be at the General Affairs and External Relations Council of Ministers meeting, chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen for the Irish Presidency of the EU on 23 February.
The Government is very conscious of its responsibilities as Presidency in ensuring an effective and even-handed conduct of the negotiations. In this respect the Council at its meeting will be giving preliminary consideration to the communication. The main result of this consideration is expected to be to initiate a process, or road-map, for the future negotiation rather than to enter into detailed negotiation at this early point.
The Government's overall approach in the negotiations will be to seek to ensure that the final agreement is in the best interests both of the EU and Ireland. In this regard, we will be fully committed to achieving a balanced overall outcome that takes full account of all aspects. This would take into account the level of contributions, which is mainly from the Exchequer and, therefore, the taxpayer, spending on agriculture, which is of such vital importance to farmers, and the allocation for the Structural Funds, including the present Objective One Regions of the Union.
I am conscious that some broad national positions are being staked out by some member states and that some of those have called for the maintenance of EU spending in real terms at its current level but, as I have indicated, this will be a protracted negotiation and national positions will evolve in the course of the negotiations.
With regard to the European Parliament, we would expect that the Parliament will continue to play the substantial and constructive role in the negotiation process that it has played since financial perspectives were introduced in the late 1980s. The 2000-06 financial perspective is encompassed by an Inter-Institutional Agreement, the IIA, of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure. The IIA allows for the agreement of the post-2006 financial perspective, failing which the expenditure ceilings set out in the IIA will continue.
There is currently no treaty basis for the financial perspective. However, the current intergovernmental conference text provides for a treaty basis for the financial perspective which would consolidate Parliament's existing role in this very important area of policy.
