BUDGET POLICY AND POWERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

by Altiero Spinelli

SUMMARY: Disagreeing with Mr Eberhard, a French Communist within his group, Spinelli intervenes once more in discussions on the general approach to the budget, upholding the powers attributed to the Parliament by the Treaties. "Speeches in European Parliament, 1976-1986", Pier Virgilio Dastoli Editor. (EP, 16 March 1979)

Mr President, on behalf of the majority of the Communist and Allies Group, I should first of all like to point out to my colleague who has just spoken that this is not - as I have already told him on another occasion - a case of 'whittling down' the powers of the national parliaments. What is at issue is the relationship between the European Parliament and the European Council. If for example, matters were resolved in such a way that the European Council took decisions instead of the European Parliament, national parliaments would still not have any real power. Although change in this direction would be quite contrary to the fundamental tenets of the Community, it would in no way affect the national parliaments.

I should like to recall the fact that the agreements and the Treaties here in question were freely signed and freely adopted by all the national parliaments of the Member States, including the French parliament. Therefore, if there are any restrictions on the powers of this or that national parliament, they were freely accepted by the parliaments themselves. In future we may have to consider the question of further restrictions, and the national parliaments will have the right to say yes or no. In this case the warning which Mr Lange gave to the Council, on behalf of the Committee on Budgets, seems to us completely justified. Indeed, we could not accept that under the pretext of changing the internal Rules of Procedure of the Council, the precents which govern the powers and functions of the institutions and thus, also, the European Parliament could be undermined and violated. Provid that the Council respects these standards we, of course, shall not intervene - even if we had the power, which we do not - in

the definition of its internal Rules of Procedure. We shall therefore vote in favour of the motion for a resolution.