Meeting of the Committee on Budgets, Committee on Budgetary Control&nbsp;and Committee on Legal Affairs&nbsp; in the EP in Brussels.&nbsp;Opening statements&nbsp;by Jean ARTHUIS (ALDE, FR) and G&uuml;nther OETTINGER, Member of the EC in charge of Budget and Human Resources, on the transfer of the portfolio for Budget and Human Resources.

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

Committee on Legal Affairs

Committee on Budgets

Committee on Budgetary Control

OETTINGER, Günther (DE, EC)

ARTHUIS, Jean (ALDE, FR)

hearing of Günther OETTINGER (T)

Exchange of views with Günther OETTINGER, Member of the EC in charge of Digital Economy and Society on the transfer of the portfolio for Budget and Human Resources: extracts from the opening statements

Atmosphere before the 3 EP committee, the Committee on Budgets, the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on Legal Affairs started the exchange of views with G&uuml;nther Oettinger, Member of the European Commission. (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (French), Jean ARTHUIS (ALDE, FR), Ladies and Gentlemen, the hearing is open, this is a joint meeting of 3 committees, we have come together to listen to Commissioner G&uuml;nter &Ouml;ttinger about extending the scope of his portfolio.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nther OETTINGER, EU Commissioner for Budget &amp; Human Resources, former Commissioner Digital, I come to you with a certain amount of responsibility but I know that all 3 of your committees are staffed by professionals, so therefore I need your help and I'd like to say that I&rsquo;m very interested in having an in-expert, transparent and in-depth dialogue over the next years. I think that is essential in order to have an efficient budget and in order to have a wise staff strategy.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nther OETTINGER, EU Commissioner for Budget &amp; Human Resources, former Commissioner Digital, However it is well know that we can increase efficiency in Human resources and we save money while doing the same work, that being so the COM is currently saving 1 percent per annum, we will be achieving 5 percent and thus we have made a significant contribution to the European budget.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nther OETTINGER, EU Commissioner for Budget &amp; Human Resources, former Commissioner Digital, (on BREXIT) I know the President is overviewing it and he has nominated Mr Barnier to work on this area, but I would be contributing with calculation, with fair employers situation for the COM, for British Civil servants and I also will be contributing in terms of looking of how we can fairly administer pensions in the medium and long term and other costs as well.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nther OETTINGER, EU Commissioner for Budget &amp; Human Resources, former Commissioner Digital, I'd like to say that I&rsquo;m completely independent vis a vis the Lobby groups, I don&rsquo;t have any shares in car manufactures, energy companies or anywhere else, so I&rsquo;m committed and I normally listen to men and women who come to me, who have expert knowledge and who come from the relevant sectors, in the transparency there are more hits than anybody else in the Commission. If people reproach me that I have listed in the area of the digital economy more meetings than the colleagues in the COM, that can be and nobody can say that I&rsquo;m lazy.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nther OETTINGER, EU Commissioner for Budget &amp; Human Resources, former Commissioner Digital, As for what I said in Hamburg in October, I want to make it clear that it is not and it was not my intention to hurt anybody with my comments and I do regret what I said at that time.