46. Emphasises that the parallelism between the extension of Parliament’s budgetary powers to cover all Union expenditure and the widening of the codecision procedure to encompass almost all legislation calls for greater account to be taken of the budgetary dimension to legislative activity; with that aim in view, regards it as essential that cooperation between the Committee on Budgets and the sectoral committees should be stepped up in order to take due account of the financial impact of Parliament’s legislative activity, in particular its impact on the MFF and the annual budget; proposes, accordingly, that the le ...[+++]gislative conciliation committees on matters with financial implications should include a member of the Committee on Budgets; to that end, draws attention to the work of the Working Party on Parliamentary Reform, not least as regards the specific forms of cooperation between parliamentary committees set out in the third interim report;

I believe the parliamentary delegation to the Conciliation Committee fought very hard before reluctantly consenting to the result of the conciliation process, and that is also how my group will vote in the Chamber.

All those among us, and there are many, who took part in the various delegations to the Conciliation Committee, which brought Parliament and the Council together face to face, accompanied and assisted by the Commission, saw for themselves how far this new procedure increased Parliament's influence during the last parliamentary term.

Meeting in the Conciliation committee , representatives of both institutions agreed on a joint text which successfully deals with all 15 parliamentary amendments to the Council's earlier common position.

COHEN State Secretary, Ministry of Education Portugal: Mr Luis VALENTE DE OLIVEIRA Minister for Territorial Planning and Management Mr Manuel FERNANDES THOMAZ State Secretary for Science and Technology United Kingdom: Mr David DAVIS Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of Public Service and Science (Office of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) * * * Commission: Mr Antonio RUBERTI Member * Head of delegation 4TH RESEARCH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME (1994-1998) Following a discussion on the European Parliament's amendments concerning the 4th framework programme of Community activities in the field of research, technological develo ...[+++]pment and demonstration (1994-1998), and after noting the impossibility of accepting the European Parliament's amendments, the President of the Council announced, in agreement with the President of the Parliament, that the Conciliation Committee provided for in Article 189b(3) of the Treaty would be convened in this connection.

The Governments of the Member States and the Commission of the European Communities were represented as follows: Belgium: Mr Luc VAN den BOSSCHE Flemish Minister for Education and the Civil Service Denmark: Mr Ole VIG JENSEN Minister for Education Germany: Mr Jürgen RÜTTGERS Minister for Education, Science and Research Mr F. SCHAUMANN State Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Science Mr Dieter BREITENBACH Minister for Science and Culture, Saarland Greece: Mr Georgios PAPANDREOU Minister for National Education and Religious Affairs Spain: Mr Gustavo SUÁREZ PERTIERRA Minister for Education and Science France: Mr Pierre SELLAL Deputy Permanent Representative Ireland: Mr John F. COGAN Deputy Permanent Representative Italy: Mr Francesco D ...[+++]'ONOFRIO Minister for Education Luxembourg: Mr Marc FISCHBACH Minister for National Education Netherlands: Mr L.J. HANRATH Deputy Permanent Representative Portugal: Mrs Manuela FERREIRA LEITE Minister for Education United Kingdom: Mr Tim BOSWELL Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Education Commission: Mr Antonio RUBERTI Member The following representatives of the acceding countries attended as observers: Austria Ms Judith GEBETSROITHNER Deputy Head of Austria's Mission to the European Union Finland Mr Olli-Pekka HEINONEN Minister for Education Sweden Mr Carl THAM Minister for Education ------- COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAMME "SOCRATES" Having established that it was unable to accept all the European Parliament's amendments to its common position on the proposal for a Decision establishing the Community Action Programme "SOCRATES", the Council proposed to the European Parliament that the Conciliation Committee provided for in Article 189b of the Treaty be convened to discuss this subject.