2011 Budget: ALDE is concerned about Council's inflexibility

The disregard of the Council hitherto to the demands of the European Parliament on the 2011 Budget is worrying.  The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe understands the budgetary difficulties which member states are struggling with, but considers that its vision for the 2011 budget is reasonable and justified which will be born out in negotiations seeking to reconcile to the two positions. 

During the plenary debate on the 2011 budget, Anne JENSEN (Venstre, Denmark), ALDE coordinator for the Budget committee insisted on the difficulties of financing in respect to the actual expenditure ceilings: "It is certainly desirable to reduce the budget but the current financial framework is too rigid.  I regret that the Commission has not proposed a revision of the framework at this half-way point, and I worry that without additional flexibility we could be heading for serious problems from 2013".

EP draws its lessons from financial crisis

Following a key-debate on the G20 summit and economical and financial issues the European Parliament adopted by a large majority (501 +/ 67 -) the interim report on

thelessons learned from the financial crisis. ALDE member Wolf KLINZ (FDP, Germany), chairman of the special committee on the financial, economic and social crisis (CRIS), comments: "I am satisfied that the European Parliament is united on such an important issue. This is remarkable when we see, that the G20 is divided on which lessons todraw from the crisis, despite its promises to act together. I am even more disappointed by the decision of the EU ministers of Finance on Monday in Luxemburg - a dark day for European citizens. They did not support the proposals of EU commissioner Olli Rehn and the task-force of Herman van Rompuy asking for more discipline in financial matters by the EU members. We cannot maintain stability and trust without discipline - this is what the Euro crisis has taught us." "The work of the CRIS Committee has made clear that Europe has reached a crucial and critical point. If we want to maintain the common currency and monetary policy and if we want to reach the EU2020 growth targets, we need more coordination of our economic and budget policies and a functioning internal and labour market. Above all, Europe should have one representative in all relevant international fora who could defend Europe's interest with one single voice in order to strengthen the European position in the global arena."

Verhofstadt: Council must endorse Commission proposals on budgetary oversight without delay

On September 29th the European Commission presented a reform package of the EU Stability and Growth Pact aiming at more stringent monitoring of macroeconomic imbalances and governments' debts.

"The Commission has delivered an initial ambitious package to introduce more stringent rules and sanctions that will steer our economies back onto a path to stability." said ALDE Leader, Guy Verhofstadt. "The Economic and Finance Ministers must now endorse it unreservedly without delay."

"In this period of crisis, with most EU Member States' budget deficits exceeding the 3 per cent limit and their debts continuing to rise, time is of the essence if we are to avoid aggravating economic and social pressures further. We are facing a ticking time bomb on an even greater scale than witnessed so far. That's why Member States should refrain from watering down this Commission proposal, like they did on financial supervision, forcing negotiations to be dragged out over 9 months before returning to the logic of the original proposal," Verhofstadt added

EU must maintain pressure for abolition of death penalty

EP strikes deal to free up 146 million euro for renewable energy projects

On October 19th Council and Parliament reached an agreement to free up 146 million euro of uncommitted funds under the European Energy Recovery Programme to create an instrument to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives. ALDE shadow rapporteur Lena EK, (Sweden, Centre Party) said: "Parliament has fought hard to make a maximum amount of money available for investments in energy-efficient projects. In times of financial constraints Europe should work together to make our way of life cheaper and more sustainable. By launching energy-efficient projects we will create jobs, green up the economy, and become less dependent on oil-producing countries." 

ALDE successful in calling the Commission to report to Parliament on Roma databases, discrimination and free movement in France and in the EU

The ALDE group's request to call for the European Commission to come to Parliament for the October Strasbourg plenary session was accepted by the Conference of Presidents on October 14th. ALDE calls on the Commission to report on the alleged existence of databases collecting ethnic and racial data of Roma, on the Fundamental Rights agency reports on ethnic profiling, as well as on the information requested by the Commission to the French authorities on the application of the Agust 5th memo targeting Roma and on the application of the free movement directive in France, notably following the controversial modifications approved two days ago by the French National Assembly.

EP adopts tougher rules for debtors

Good news for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in Europe: On October 20th the European Parliament voted by a large majority in favour of a report which aims to protect those companies in Europe from illiquidity and bankruptcy that have to wait too long for their customers' payments by introducing maximum payment periods. The new directive is predicted to increase liquidity of European companies by almost € 180 billion a year. A compromise on this issue for a first reading agreement had been recently found in the negotiations, and is now confirmed by Parliament as a whole. Jürgen CREUTZMANN (FDP, Germany), ALDE coordinator on the report, welcomes the agreed compromise: "This is a step forward for all companies, in particular for SME. The EP - and also our group - was clearly successful in having key points included."

ALDE Group prominently present at the successful ELDR Congress in Helsinki!

During the past week, the largest international liberal event of the year took place in Helsinki, Finland, when ELDR Member Parties Suomen Keskusta and Svenska Folkpartiet hosted the annual ELDR Congress, bringing together some 700 liberals from around 30 European countries to debate topical issues under the over-arching topic Challenges of Demographic Change.

The ALDE Group was present with a prominent stand explaining the work of the liberal MEP's in the European 

Parliament.

The ELDR Party Congress elected former leader of the liberal group in the European Parliament Graham Watson MEP, as one of the Vice Presidents for a period of two years. 

ALDELAT meeting on Cadiz Process, Bogota

On 28-29 September, The Liberal Network in Latin America (RELIAL) in cooperation with Liberal International and ALDE organized its first ALDELAT workshop on the Cadiz Process (which began at the LI-ALDE-RELIAL Event in March 2010)  “An Analysis of European Union — Latin American relations from a liberal perspective”. The workshop which took place in Bogota aimed to advance the design and development of a final document to be adopted by all institutions involved, and presented by ALDE to the European Parliament.

The ALDE delegation was lead by Renate Weber, ALDE coordinator on Latin American issues and Izaskun Bilbao, Vice President of the EP delegation for the relations with the Andean Countries. LI Vice President Cristian David attended the meetings as well as Otto Guevara, President of Relial and Costa Rican Liberal Party Movimiento Libertario. Debates were focused on the identification of challenges and opportunities in the EU-LA relations. The EU is offering Latin America a model of development through cooperation and access to a large and rich market. In the meantime Latin America offers the EU access to energy resources and investment opportunities. In a fast-moving world economy it is necessary to partner together as global players.

European Commission Communication on EU Budget Review

On October 20th, the European Commission released a communication on the review of the EU budget covering all aspects of EU spending, including the Common Agricultural Policy, and EU resources.  This document follows the May 2006 agreement reached by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, that such a review should be undertaken, with a large public consultation.

The communication sets out concrete options for how the EU Budget can help address future challenges, in particular the achievement of the "Europe 2020" strategy.  Objectives include improving the quality and effectiveness of EU spending, and the link between the EU budget and EU policy priorities.  The review also takes a fresh look at the best way of providing the resources necessary to fun EU policies.

ALDE Response: The European Union needs its own budget

ALDE believes that it is now time to endow the Union with more budgetary autonomy, to end the destructive disputes over net national contributions and to find a sustainable source of revenue that has legitimacy with the citizens of Europe.

The current financial climate is admittedly tough, with many Member States having to make substantial cuts in public expenditure in order to reduce the burden on future generations of Europeans. The European Union must also play its part in not calling for unreasonable budgetary increases.

However Member States also need to recognise that they can make considerable savings (e.g. on defence, R&D, overseas aid, transport and energy infrastructure) by pooling funds for such common projects. The EU budget should not be considered a zero-sum game. Everyone gains by sharing resources.

Secondly, now that the Lisbon Treaty is in force, endowing the Union with new competences and tasks we need to settle the issue of own resources by agreeing on a more autonomous revenue stream than the current dependence on net GNI transfers. Member States must politically commit now to agree to change the system. We wish to see such a commitment emerge as part of an overall political deal on the 2011 budget where both sides show goodwill and a vision for the future financing of our Union.

Wolf Klinz, MEP (FDP, Germany)

Born in 1941, Klinz studied economics and business administration in Paris, Vienna and Berlin.  He graduated with an M.Com in 1963, a PhD in 1965, and an MBA from Insead, Fontainebleau, in 1966. Klinz was a Partner with McKinsey & Company in Düsseldorf and Paris.  Subsequently he served as a Member of the Executive Board of a Swiss Corporation. After German reunification he joined the Executive Board of Treuhandanstalt, the German Government's agency for privatisation of the former East German industry. He finished his business career as CEO of a large German corporation in 2003 when he decided to go into European politics.  From 2000 to 2004, he held the (honorary) position of President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) Frankfurt am Main.

Elected as a Member of the European Parliament in June 2004 and again in 2009 for the German FDP, Wolf Klinz is Committee chair for the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis (CRIS), a full Member in the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and a substitute in the Committee on Development (DEVE).

In the quest of the European Parliament to draw lessons for Europe from the recent - and in parts - ongoing crisis, Wolf Klinz is a key actor on the liberal side. He is the Chair of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis, whose interim report has just been voted at the Strasbourg October session. Under his leadership the pro-European parties of the EP have managed to unite their views and so gain 501 votes in order to give a coherent image of the Parliament on such an important issue. The second part of Klinz's Committee work, until early summer 2011, will mostly deal with the views of national Parliaments and their ideas on how to tackle the crisis.

For more information, please contact:
ALDE Press Service and Inter-institutional relations unit

neil.corlett@europarl.europa.eu
willem.vandenbroucke@europarl.europa.eu