mr president first let me say thanks to the belgian presidency because it is really trying but they need to do a little bit more
the european parliament has shown a lot of goodwill in accepting the figures for twenty eleven because we understand the economic situation in the member states
regarding commitments it is even in real terms a reduction of the budget
we have also offered solutions to a number of practical things like iter institutions like the financial supervisory authorities and the external action service we have been constructive
but we do not accept that the economic crisis will be here for ever and that the crisis should set the limits for the future of europe
we do not accept that single-minded austerity is the way out
we do not accept that the crisis requires less europe or an anti-european agenda
more concretely we have criticised the lack of flexibility in the european union budget for years and the commission agrees with us
so how can the solution to the budget problems suddenly be to restrict flexibility
how can the future of europe be to cut funding of mutually agreed priority programmes and not fund new ones iter is not the only priority or even the most important ones
without reasonable flexibility we risk building up a mountain of problems for twenty twelve and twenty thirteen
let us try to avoid that
how can it be a problem to involve the european parliament in a constructive dialogue on the future financial framework and the next long-term budget
i do not understand
let us try again to find an agreement but we must find a solution to flexibility that is not less ambitious than what we already have in the interinstitutional agreement
we must find an open and constructive procedure on the next financial framework
that is our red line
please council try again
