Marlene HOLZNER

What Marlene HOLZNER has said (3)

• “I mean, it is true that the Commission proposal proposes fewer targets than what we have today. Um, I do not think that having a whole series of many targets will be helpful in this respect, but I would like to point out that the Commission proposals include already a proposed climate and environment target at the level of 30%. It also includes, as we have today, in this objective, to contribute to the 0.2% of GNI to LDCs. So a number of elements are there. There is also a proposed Oda target. I mean, I would consider that this target in terms of Oda in reality, is more ambitious than what we have today. Today, there is no Oda target when it comes to enlargement spending, or there is no Oda target when it comes to humanitarian aid. So by proposing a target for the whole scope of global Europe, in reality, the scope of the target is much broader than what exists today in Ndiki. And I would also argue that 90% of €200 billion is much more than 93% of €80 billion. But of course, this is something that will have to further discuss. And so we very much look forward to further discussions together and see how we can strike the right balance between predictability and flexibility. Thank you.”
  Size of EU budget · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid
• “Yes. Thank you so much for the floor. Now, first I want to say we very much share what Tanya Cox has said in terms of the aim, we do have poverty reduction as one of the main aims for development cooperation, and that will still be there. We have a little bit a different interpretation how to get there and that is the global gateway strategy. And the other thing is that if we look into how the money is spent. Uh, now we come to a little bit a different, uh, finding than Tanya Cox in her report. So when she talks about civil society getting less funding now than in the past, from what our finding is, uh, that is not the case. Even under global gateway, we have seen that the share, the overall share, if you take it, the whole budget that we have. So the civil society thematic program that I'm responsible for and Tanya made alert to, plus all the money under the geographical budgets, then the share that goes to civil society is pretty stable. So before global gateway and after global gateway, we are talking about roughly 7% or more concretely in 2024, 15.3. And that's why maybe Tanya Cox came up with the figure of 20. Because according to our figures, we are now at 13.3 of the overall budget. And in terms of the the whole report that Tanya bases her analysis of, we have shared with her and discussed a little bit the methodology, but unfortunately, we do not have a computer where we push on a button and then all the figures come out. The whole system is much too complex, so we have to base ourselves on the figures we have. And we had said that the methodology as such, she has not all the relevant figures at hand. And so it's an estimation. And we come, unfortunately, to a to different kind of figures, please.”
  EU engagement with civil society · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · Global priorities for international development
• “Excellent. Thank you. Chair, and thanks for the opportunity to be here today. I think we're very much aligned in terms of policy direction when it comes to the crucial role of civil society in international partnerships, and also when it comes to to human development and how we can best tackle this. And I would just like to, to hone in on one aspect that was raised that is this this question of flexibility and predictability. And I think that's very much a question of striking the right balance. There are some trade offs there. The commission proposal, some kind of balance. And this is something we'll need to discuss further in the upcoming legislative process. And there I would like to share just a few facts that that underpin this conundrum. First, when it comes to the question of of the reserve, the proposed cushion in the instrument, what the Commission proposes is to change the decision making in this MFF. The Commission decides on the cushion. What is proposed with Global Europe is that the Parliament and the council will decide following commission proposals. So this is a shift, I think, when it comes to decision making and responsibilities, that in the future, for the allocations of the cushion, the Parliament and the council will decide no longer the Commission. A second element I would like to point in terms of flexibility and predictability is the question of the spending targets.”
  Size of EU budget · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · Conditions to access EU budget