Mr President, before we start the vote there are one or two things that need to be said, and I hope Members will bear with me just for a couple of minutes. If we could make things clear before we start the voting it will save me getting up to speak throughout the vote.
Firstly, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development has resubmitted its amendments. I find this somewhat annoying because it submitted them not only at the very last moment but in fact after the deadline. The time on the faxed paper shows that, but it is by your good grace, Mr President, that it has been allowed to put these amendments forward. Of these amendments, one we have already adopted; another is quite illegal in category 2 because it exceeds the ceiling and there is no compensation for it; another we have adopted with actually higher payments in payment appropriations.
Mr President, quite frankly, the way this has been done by the Agriculture Committee is totally irresponsible: it is not a serious way of doing business. I am going to recommend that we take a vote on these Agriculture Committee amendments en bloc and we reject them. That is the first thing I wish to say.
The second thing is that the very first amendment on which we shall vote - "structural funds" on your voting list - is the one that we need to adopt. And it is not just structural funds, though of course structural funds account for ECU 485 million of it. I know that there are some delegations who are concerned about this. I hope they will vote for it. We need you to vote for it: it is important for Parliament. If you have had reservations, then let me read just three small paragraphs from the motion for a resolution on which we shall vote later: first of all, Parliament "welcomes the fact that the Council has agreed the decision on the increase of the Community's own resources up to 1.21% of GNP", albeit "22 months after the European Summit decision at Edinburgh". Secondly, it "requests the other arm of the Budgetary Authority to urge the national parliaments to make the appropriate decisions on the Council's 'own resources' decision of 21 October 1994 approved by Parliament, and states that the appropriati
ons concerned will be unfrozen on the original lines in a supplementary and amending budget when all Member States have ratified the own resources decision". Then it "emphasizes that these 'frozen payments' do not imply any reduction of already agreed policies and obligations in the field of the structural funds and controlled thermonuclear fusion policy". I stress that it is not a threat against the structural funds.
I also need to point out that as we vote in blocks, within the first three blocks - blocks 1, 2 and 3 - we are dealing with classification. If new Members are wondering what that means, it means we are talking about power, power for the European Parliament, and the Committee on Budgets has recommended putting in amendments that question the definition of obligatory expenditure on certain lines within category 1. Many of the amendments within the early blocks are aimed at that. It is extremely important for the sake of Parliament that we adopt them.
On enlargement and on the new needs of the Community, the Budgets Committee has also agreed a series of amendments to take account of enlargement and new needs and these are covered in block 6, which looks at the Cohesion Fund; in block 8, on the International Fund for Ireland; also within block 8 and in block 14, on employment in Europe; and in block 18, on the modernization of the Portuguese textile industry.
I know that when we applied this procedure of voting in blocks last year one or two Members voiced concern about it to me. If we do not do it this way we will be here for many, many hours - we were voting for 21 hours in the Budgets Committee. If we stick to the blocks, then we should get through them in a much shorter space of time. The procedure is a logical one: for instance, the amendments in block 14 address the problems of employment; in block 19 we are looking at trans-European networks and information society; in block 20 the common foreign and security policy; food aid in block 22 and the new Mediterranean basin initiative in block 23; the programme of positive measures regarding South Africa is in block 24, and the continued actions in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS are in block 26. I hope that Members can accept that we take the vote in blocks.
Lastly, I need to make a statement in regard to Budget line B7-5023. No amendments have been tabled to this, but of course when we adopt the budget, appropriations on this line will be agreed. It concerns aid for ACP banana producers and is an extremely important line. Two weeks ago, on 14 October, the Commission was given the authority to utilize these appropriations for the Windward Islands following the devastation caused by tropical storm Debbie. I understand that this money is not being used and the emergency action is not being taken because it is being blocked at Commissioner level - that is not Commissioner Steichen, but several other Commissioners are blocking this. I wish to make a plea to those Commissioners to unblock this so that the money from this line in this year's budget can be used in those areas.
With that, Mr President, I hope we can start the votes and conclude them successfully.
(Applause)
