Translation of "Enveloppe à savon " (French → English) :

Mr. Marc Grégoire: I should tell you that we cannot count specifically in these instances how many people are affected, but civil aviation in Transport Canada has the largest chunk of the budget.

Despite the fact that these high-flown ideas have mainly been rejected, that they do not form part of the Hague Programme and that they have aroused the fierce opposition of hundreds of NGOs and of a great many members both of national parliaments and of this House, we remain concerned, because the Hague Programme includes a reference to a feasibility study on the processing of asylum applications outside the EU and because we are also aware that EUR 1 million has been released to enable the High Commissioner for Refugees to strengthen its capacities for dealing with asylum seekers in North African countries.

We have entered a provision of EUR 30 million in the budget, and we are aware that the Commission has proposed the sum of EUR 200 million, EUR 40 million of which, in all probability, will be paid out of the 2003 budget and EUR 160 million of which out of the 2004 budget, possibly using the flexibility instrument.

We know that the vast majority of Europeans live in cities, and, until now, these matters, as far as cities specifically are concerned, have played second fiddle. The rapporteur, Mrs Lienemann, has quite rightly recommended that the Commission’s proposed budget should be increased.

It was a great achievement on our part to secure an increase in the funding from EUR 54.4 million to EUR 93 million – i.e. it was practically doubled – even though we know that we would need a much larger amount to do justice to the importance of this issue in terms of our common future.