madam president it is always controversial when you discuss your own budget and we have seen that in our discussions on the amending budget and in our own budget for twenty eleven
however i am pleased that most of the issues have now been resolved for twenty eleven within the committee on budgets itself
indeed i believe there are now very few differences between the committee on budgets and the bureau apart from maybe three or four issues
one of course is the twenty threshold
another is the buildings reserve another is the posts which have now been put into reserve and another is the second tranche of eur one five hundred per member per month for the assistants allowance
these two tranches of eur one five hundred per member are controversial and would be difficult at any time but are of course even more controversial in difficult economic times
this is even though we all recognise that the lisbon treaty has given us more responsibilities
it is because of this that a compromise has been reached to put the funding for the second tranche of eur one five hundred into a reserve and it will remain there until the full costings of this proposal are established
i think the other controversial issue for us which is outstanding is the office-holders allowance
the compromise reached here was to reduce the figure allocated for office holders down from eur one point two million to eur four hundred zero and of course documented evidence of receipts must be provided when any claims are made
i think that is an important principle and one we would all want to support
colleagues themselves will decide whether these two compromises are acceptable to them or not
i believe the majority of the s d group will find those compromises acceptable to them
one thing however has also become clear in our discussions on the twenty eleven budget and that is if we are to fund extra responsibilities in the future because of the lisbon treaty we must also find efficiency savings elsewhere
for the twenty eleven budget some attempts at making these savings have been made
indeed the overall increase has come down from six point five to around five point eight that is welcome but i believe we need to do much more in the future
i hope that in the future the bureau will come forward with recommendations and proposals not only about spending but also about ways in which we can make efficiency savings in the future
i would hope those savings would include changes in the way we do things rather than just making cuts
i believe it is important in the future that if the bureau does come forward and i hope it will with efficiency savings proposals that it is discussed with members at an early stage
this will give the european parliament the chance to shape the budget but also to shape our priorities and to identify savings ourselves but in the meantime we should continue to work to ensure that our budget for twenty eleven is acceptable to members to this parliament and of course to the public as well
