Brussels, 05/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting of the European Parliament's budgets committee on Thursday 4 March, the director general of DG Budget at the European Commission, Hervé Jouanjean, said the Commission planned to adopt the report on reforming the budget and changing the EU in July or September this year. A first version of the document had generated a raft of adverse criticism (EUROPE 10018). At the end of last year, being engaged in a period of day-to-day management, the Commission had decided to postpone adoption of the report on mid-term reform of the budget. The Commission hopes that the budgetary and legal proposals necessary for setting up its diplomatic service, the European External Action Service (EEAS), will be adopted on 11 March and in the following weeks.
The director general of DG Budget has given some indications as to the Commission's scheduling of proposals for the budget and financial management in 2010. On 28 April, the Commission is to adopt its proposals on the draft EU budget for 2011, along with a report (with proposals where necessary) on assessing how the current financial framework (2007-2013) is operating and the 2006 inter-institutional agreement on budgetary discipline and correct financial management.
During the second half of May, the Commission will adopt a “very substantial” proposal on review of the financial regulation. The document, relating to review of the budget, of which an incomplete version had, as Hervé Jouanjean pointed out, been leaked last November, will be adopted by the Commission in July or September this year. Finally, in the autumn, a Commission communication will be adopted on the acceptable risk of error.
On the subject of the EEAS, the Commission will, on 11 March after a general policy debate on the issue, publish draft proposals on amending financial procedure and draft amendments to the rules on status so that the service may be set in place, the Commission representative explained. Hervé Jouanjean said that, in the weeks following adoption of these proposals, the Commission is expected to adopt a draft correcting budget to take the consequences of setting up this service into account. He went on to point out that the Commission is working in close cooperation with EU High Representative Catherine Ashton on this matter and that a great deal has already been accomplished. On the Commission's side, “we are anxious to move quickly”, Jouanjean said, adding that Ashton is also keen to make swift progress as she needs this draft budget in order to get the EEAS up and running. The Commission hopes to present the draft budget in the next few weeks, the DG director said.
Reimer Böge (EPP, Germany) criticised the Commission for its silence over the financial framework under the Lisbon Treaty and on the subject of mid-term review of multiannual programmes. Several MEPs expressed concern about the fact that there is no longer any budgetary room for manoeuvre under the 2011, 2012 and 2013 budgetary ceilings. Göran Färm (S&D, Sweden) asked the Commission when it plans to put forward a review of financial perspectives.
Salvador Garriga Polledo (EPP, Spain) called for details about the mid-term review of the budget because the review document and the review itself are not only important for preparing the budget 2011 but also for fuelling the debate within EP political groups on the Commission's proposals for funding objectives within the EU 2020 Strategy. He said he found this delay in the adoption of the mid-term review document unacceptable, and called on the Commission to keep to its commitments.
According to Helga Trüpel (Greens/EFA, Germany), the Commission was not playing its part in initiating policy. She said things needed to change and the Commission should have put forward a proposal on mid-term review in 2009. She feared that mid-term review might be deferred till later, when negotiations begin next year on post-2013 financial perspectives. (L.C./transl.jl)