Brussels, 11/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 11 June the Council of Ministers of the EU adopted by qualified majority voting (only the United Kingdom appeared to have a reservation about this text) its position on the draft amending budget No. 4 to the general budget of 2010 for the budget regarding the surplus and execution of the 2009 budget year. The annual EU budget must be balanced at the end of the tax year (with no losses or surplus). Therefore, any surplus is automatically paid into the budget of the following year, which means reduced contributions for member states.
The Council support the European Commission's initial proposal dated 16 April last, which allows for a decrease of €2.25 billion in contributions from EU countries to the Community budget of 2010, which corresponds to 1.9% of the 2009 budget (EUROPE 10120 for details about this proposal).
€2.25 billion surplus is the result of: - an over registration of revenue (€+ 3 996 331 619.33); - and under execution of payment appropriations (€- 1 928 282 180.35); - a positive balance sheet in the exchange markets (€+ 185 541 760.39). Reductions in contributions from EU countries are notably € 459.1 million for Germany, €371.6 million for France, €306.2 million for the United Kingdom, €287.9 for Italy and €196.2 million for Spain. The European Parliament is expected to ratify this amendment to the current budget on Wednesday 16 June in Strasbourg. (L.C./transl.fl)