- Madam President, I rise specifically to comment on paragraph 15 of Mr Wynn's motion for a resolution, which draws attention to the funding of the common foreign and security policy expenditure out of Community funds.

Mr Wynn quotes the example of the PLO police force being funded out of Community funds, and we recall that only last December this Parliament authorized the approval of ECU 40.5 million in order to fund humanitarian aid for Bosnia by taking money away from tobacco, fishing and PHARE. In fact, for its common foreign and security policy, which is meant to be a new and exciting dimension, the European Union is acting metaphorically like the tramp going around cap in hand saying "buddy, can you spare me a dime?". That is not the way we should be proceeding: it does no credit to the European Union whatsoever!

More importantly, it ought to be a principle in everything we do where taxpayers' money is concerned, that there should be maximum transparency and full accountability. That applies to the common foreign and security policy just as to any other area. Of course, the policy is still in its infancy; of course we do not know what will happen tomorrow and so we need to make provision for the unknown. Nevertheless, we should establish certain principles.

Firstly, the common foreign and security policy operation expenditure should be charged to the Community budget and therefore should be subject to full budgetary process. If it is allowed to be carried out via intergovernmental cooperation we shall not have full scrutiny. Secondly, we should have realistic amounts set aside for the common foreign and security policy - not the ECU 1 million we have this year. Thirdly, there should be a proper and effective reserve so that we are not constantly scraping around to find money from other headings.

The other important principle we need to abide by is that Article C of the Treaty of European Union makes it very clear that the common foreign and security policy is only one part of our external policy. We must ensure there is no contamination of that external policy. Specifically Community support measures, which are designed to back up the common foreign and security policy, should not be considered part of that policy because then their actions will be restricted and it will require unanimity in the Council.

Nor should we draw on Community support measures voted through the European Parliament to fund the common foreign and security policy because again that undermines accountability and transparency.

I hope that before we finalize next year's budget we can resolve the question of the funding of the common foreign and security policy.