Brussels, 02/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - So as to finance assistance to the Balkans for 2000-2006, the European Commission is on Wednesday to propose a multi-annual review of the financial perspectives, with an increase in the ceiling for the chapter "external actions" of the budget - chapter 4 - of 300 million euro a year from 2001 to 2006, without an overall increase to the budget. The increase in the ceiling (maximum amount of expenditure) of chapter 4 should indeed be operated through a similar cut in the budget of chapter 1 "agricultural spending" (outside rural development). Although envisaged in the proposal for the period as a whole, this reduction is not however formally included in the quantified proposal for 2001 and 2002 - the review of the common agricultural policy in 2002 does not enable institutions to commit themselves now to the level of agricultural spending beyond that year. In this context (increase of 300 million euro not compensated by a precise cut), the proposal does stipulate that the overall ceiling for the budget must in no case be increased.
Revision would come in addition to the amount already earmarked in the budget for the Balkans for 2000-2006 (1.85 billion), to the reduction in funds that the Commission plans to operate within Heading 4 to the benefit of aid to the Balkans (redeployment of 1.64 billion), and to the 200 million under the flexibility instrument provided for Kosovo in the budget 2000. The redeployments that the Commission plans to operate are taken into account in the communication on the financial programming of Heading 4 for 2000-2006, also to be adopted by the Commission on Wednesday.
The draft revision of the financial perspectives for 2001-2006 is intended to complete the financing (EUR 5.5 billion) of the 2000-2006 Plan for the Balkans. This plan is, however, not yet operational. Studies have been carried out and figures of needs are available, but the proposal of legal base intended to allow financing is not yet ready.
Almost half of the financial assistance (up to 2.26 billion over the whole period) is for Serbia. Nonetheless, the proposal provides that this will only be spent if "political conditions are met". To put it clearly, as long as Slobodan Milosevic is in power the money will be frozen - but 40 million for support of the democratic opposition would, however, be included in the 2001 budget. Nonetheless, if the 300 million added to Heading 4 are not employed because of frozen aid to Serbia, there would be no carrying over of this ceiling the following year, as the ceiling is a maximum amount of spending for one year and not a series of credits.
The Commission also proposes: 1.1 billion for Kosovo; 1.508 broken down between Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and the Former Republic of Macedonia (this includes macro-economic aid except for 2001); 75 million for macro-financial assistance in 2001 and 558 million for regional cooperation.
The draft revision has a second goal: to make aid to Cyprus and Malta move from Heading 4 "external actions" to Heading 7 "pre-accession aid". The second section, intended to endorse the status of these two countries as applicant countries, simply amounts to including the 20 million attributed annually to these two countries to Heading 7 instead of Heading 4. Mathematically, this transfer means that the ceiling of Heading 4 would not be raised by EUR 300 million - the amount requested by the Commission for the Balkans - but by EUR 280 million.