In the latest edition of I talk, euronews’ programme where you ask the questions, the guest is Janusz Lewandowski, EU Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget.

Alex Taylor: “Which budgets are you in charge of, how much is it and who decides exactly where it gets spent?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “I am in charge of the European budget. It is equal to some 140 billion euros and always at an equilibrium, in contrast to the deficits we now have at a national level.”

Alex Taylor: “Does this money comes from our taxes?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “Of course, this is about tax payers’ money.”

The first public question came from Spyros who is Greek, but lives in the Netherlands.

Spyros: “Greece is going to get a lot of money again as support. Who is going to control what happens with the money? Greeks don’t trust the government – the previous one, the current one and probably the future one. So, can we have some Europeans coming over to Greece to control what happens to the budget right now?”

Alex Taylor: “A rare Greek who actually wants European intervention. Is that likely?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “No. Greece is a sovereign country and this is about the democratic leaders controlling their money. It is a national budget. Yes of course but there is now a danger of contagion if there are problems. But what Brussels does is audited using international audit standards, and we know that in the past there was something wrong with statistics coming from Greece so we have learnt a lesson.”

Alex Taylor: “But we are all going to lose our financial sovereignty to the euro aren’t we, because we are all interlinked together?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “That is a very Anglo-Saxon point of view. It is voluntarily delegated, part of sovereignty and this is for the benefit of those who enjoy traffic with one currency without transaction costs and risks in Europe.”

Klute: “My name is Ed Klute, and I’m from the Netherlands. What I would like to ask to the Commissioner is what can be done to make more money available for Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) on the national level to be able to work together through the European Union?”

Alex Taylor: “Are you in a position at the moment to make more money available?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “I have to say, after touring Europe, that the position of the major stakeholders, that is the national governments was rather conservative. They are not going for revolution, although we are suggesting revolutionary changes on the revenue side. What is potentially of interest for the NGOs is that innovation, research and migration flows are growing. We have managed to grow them in the financial future, despite the financial constraints which we have to respect.”

Alex Taylor: “Even in this economic climate?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “Our continent is no longer the brave new optimistic world. Europe is no longer optimistic. We have to take into account the rather eurosceptic mood. On the other hand, nobody can deny that under the Lisbon Treaty Europe is aware of its responsibilities and perhaps challenges, like the euro, like immigration, cannot be solved at a national level.

Agneska: “I’m Agneska from Poland. What can we expect from the Polish presidency of the EU?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “Of course Poland has formal priorities for 2011.”

Alex Taylor: “What are they?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “There is security, job growth, solidarity in Europe, better border control at the external borders in reply to attempts to question the Schengen agreement. Beyond these, we need to regain some optimism because Poland is now the optimistic part of Europe. I would say that the unofficial mission of Poland is to regain some confidence.”

Alex Taylor: “You get the impression that the new member states were quickly disappointed because they had so many illusions, is that not the case?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “No. I was one of those behind the Iron Curtain, and for me this is a fantastic project, having these institutions of 27 countries without losing identity. The French are no less French after 50 years of integration, the Dutch are no less Dutch. Identities are being preserved and we are still cooperating. This is the most fantastic historical lesson we can learn from the continent of Europe.”

Björn: “My name is Björn and I’m from Sweden.

Will the European Union dissolve in a couple of years because of the economic problems?”

Alex Taylor: “It is starting to look like that, everything is falling apart, isn’t it? You can see why people think that.”

Janusz Lewandowski: “I also feel that Europe is less optimistic and there are fears which were not present on the continent after the Second World War. But our job is not to speculate about the future, we should leave that to the financial markets.”

Alex Taylor: “There is a lack of leadership, isn’t there? We haven’t got the great European leaders or the visionaries we had in history.”

Janusz Lewandowski: “We have a history. A united Europe is really the historical lesson for Europe as a continent. This is the continent of the two world wars. It’s the continent that exported ideologies like communism and Nazi-ism. This is the only continent to learn the lesson from its history and that needs to be preserved. Each generation has to regain confidence and to rediscover the value of Europe.”

Margaretha: “Hello, I’m Margaretha from Romania.

In the future, will the EU have a higher budget than this year and previous years?”

Alex Taylor: “The question is not if you want one, but if you think it is likely in the current circumstances that you will get a bigger budget. Is it very unlikely?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “Yes it is unlikely. We need to build more Europe with more or less the same money. That is our puzzle to be solved in the Commission and in the negotiations. However, without budgetary lines, policy promises could be seen as empty declarations really. So we need to upgrade the budget. All of this is only two percent of overall governments’ expenditure in the European Union.”

Alex Taylor: “But no country has ever told you they want to give you more. How do you persuade them to give more money?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “We are not asking for more, we are stabilising. As for the future, we are taking the 2013 level and only making an inflationary adjustment multiplied by seven. That is the concept of our new financial perspective for 2014-2020.

Puff: “My name is Puff Östlinger, from Sweden and I’m a teacher. In Sweden students are not allowed to pay any extra in schools. So it’s very difficult for us to make exchange trips to other countries. How can we get extra money for that? How can we get money from the EU in a simply way?”

Janusz Lewandowski: “Clearly this is a national problem because I see Erasmus (the programme financing mobility of students) as a very successful value additive of Europe. If there are constraints at a national level we cannot solve these constraints in Brussels. This is clearly a Swedish problem. Nevertheless, mobility is clearly conducive to mutual understanding for the nations of Europe.”

To find out who will be our next guest and how you can ask them questions go totagURLhttp://www.euronews.net/europa/i-talk/

Copyright © 2012 euronews