madam president i would like to thank the commissioner
i would also like to thank the rapporteur for his report but also for his approach to putting together the other sections budget
he is right to balance the need to ensure that the european parliament and other sections are able to function properly against ensuring that budget increases are kept to an absolute minimum
i particularly welcome his proposal to keep increases within the rate of inflation
i believe the initial proposal of five point two is far too high
of course to achieve the moderate savings pursued by the rapporteur and others within the parliament we need to ensure we also identify savings within the budget
i have therefore offered to work with the rapporteur to ensure those savings are found
i believe there are potential savings to be found in things like the buildings policy and in terms of enlargement which the commissioner has mentioned himself but also in things like the proposed cost of a non-european office which i believe at this time is an unaffordable luxury
finally can i say we also need to work very closely with other institutions particularly the committee of the regions and the european economic and social committee which i know were very concerned about their budget for twenty twelve as well
we need to ensure that they like us are able to function properly but also at the same time limit their spending increases for the future
so i can say that the socialists and democrats group is very keen to work with the rapporteur we do support the proposals for these guidelines and we look forward next week to discussing the estimates
