udget was thus an increased budget and one that is much sincerer than it had previously been. Yes, to start with, the <strong>2019</strong> draft budget law will be respected. M.I.F.A. - <strong>Sofins</strong> <strong>2019</strong> 062 The sincerity of the budget of the armies is no subject for soldiers abroad. Yet, it has a determining impact on our daily lives. What was the rule for years? We <strong>all</strong> know the answer. Field operations spending were not provisioned whereas operations were on-going, and whose cost could not be foreseen. The result at the end of the year was that the Ministry had to <strong>all</strong>ocate resources to finance field operations according to an inter-ministerial <strong>all</strong>ocation key. How did we proceed then? Rather simply: we curtailed programmes for equipping the forces, cancelled, postponed, which led to delays and overspending. Ultimately, those who suffered from the situation were none other than soldiers on the field, in their everyday lives. We decided to end this spiral and chose truth and responsibility. We ended the under-budgeting that put the weight of uncertainties on our forces. The financing of field operations is now written in the draft budget bill. And I would like here to thank the work and vigilance of our parliamentarians and the presidents of the two competent commissions. This does not mean that there will be no decisions to take in the f<strong>all</strong>, like in <strong>all</strong> other areas of the public policy. But these are now assumed and the budget is voted and executed. This is what we started doing since the 2018 budget for the armies was integr<strong>all</strong>y executed. Thanks to additional resources of 1,8 billion euros, our armies were consolidated, manoeuvre margins were generated and a new path is starting to appear. It was necessary. We sh<strong>all</strong> continue to trace this new path for the coming years. As I underlined, the LPM for <strong>2019</strong>-2025 acts a novel and ambitious budget trajectory. This priority given to the armies in a context that is known to be constrained for public finances is a strategic and sovereign necessity that I fully assume. We can see it in our context: it is the capacity offered to our country to be consolidated as the first European army and to give ourselves the strategic and operational capacities to intervene for our safety, to work hand in hand with our <strong>all</strong>ies, but not to depend on the decisions of the latter. In our current context, this forces us, this forces you to the greatest responsibility. Each decision must be weighed, each Euro must be usefully spent. But the framework is there: yes, the trajectory of the LPM will be respected, I committed to this from the start and reiterate my pledge here. We are done with the reduction logic of reforms implemented under the accounting constraint, under the pressure of workforce reduction. We are done with this impossible equation whereby we always asked for more with less. The ministry of defence is used to reforms. I will not renounce to these reforms. But these reforms are not with less or with budgetary aims. These reforms must be branded with the seal of ambition: seeing large, seeing high. Ultimately, what I offer today, is to emerge from the era of the reforms suffered and to enter the era of chosen transformations. And we must do this together. The course is set, the means are available, possibilities are thus opened. We must now go forth, with enthusiasm and determination. We must make place for will, innovation, inventiveness, audacity, these virtues that the armies have shown throughout their history and that I constantly observed in every one of my travels, in every moment spent by your side. These military qualities so essential on the battlefield are indispensable for an in-depth transformation. In fact, you did not wait: the ministry is already in movement. And I want to salute the remarkable action of Florence PARLY at your head. Since 18 months, Madam Minister, with the Secretary of State Madam Geneviève DARRIEUSSECQ, with the full and whole support of General François LECOINTRE, Chief-of- Staff of the Armies, whom I deeply thank, but also the general delegate for weaponry, the secretary general for the administration and the chiefs of staff that I <strong>all</strong> thank, through the professionalism of the entire civilian and military staff, the staff, directorates and departments, you have put in place the levers of change, you have laid the groundwork by opening up the necessary projects for the modernisation of the ministry. I want to sincerely thank you for that and tell you that not only will we pursue these transformations, but that they will be intensified around three major axes. The first: modernising the conception, development and equipment acquisition processes. I have said: each Euro must be spent usefully. This is even truer in terms of equipment since the Defence is the first investment budget of the state. How could I justify to the French people the efforts that they consent for the armies if the equipment is not delivered on time because of too complex or lengthy procedures or if the equipment that will
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