Brussels, 19/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - Despite protests from the Commissioner responsible for the Budget, the EU 15 Ministers, gathered this Thursday in Council for the first reading of the preliminary draft 2001 Budget, should not only revise downwards the Commission proposals for aid to the Balkans in 2001, but also, according to Council sources, announced their refusal of the proposal for the multi-annual review (2201-2007) of the financial forecasts, called for by the Commission to plan aid to the Balkans throughout this period. For the 2001 Budget, the Council should propose 614 million for the Balkans (of which 320 for Kosovo) instead of the 814 requested by the Commission (including 350 for Kosovo).
The European Commission is not expected to receive much support from the Parliament, of which a delegation will meet the ministers on Thursday morning for a consultation meeting. The Parliament, stresses Jutta Haug, Rapporteur for the 2001 budget, does not seem ready to launch out, either for the 2001 budget or for the period as a whole, into a budgetary battle similar to that which it had carried out last year for the financing of aid to Kosovo, where the increased ceiling in external policy spending was presented as the basis for all discussion on the budget. "The Parliament delegation will be clear about the refusal of the cuts that the Council plans to make in external policies, and mainly in the Meda programme", specifies the rapporteur, while acknowledging that, within the EP, there is still no clear position on how to finance the external policies.
The Council generally follows, to the exception of a few small details, the conclusions reached by Coreper. The latter proposes, compared to the 2000 budget, an increase of 2.8% in commitment appropriations and 3.5% in payment appropriations, as opposed to 3.9% and 5% respectively proposed by the Commission in its preliminary draft. The smaller increase proposed compared to the preliminary draft report from the Commission comes: i) from agricultural spending (-330 million euros for market expenditure and -225 million for rural development); ii) structural actions (-114 million in payments); iii) internal policies (-71.94 million in commitments and -177.87 in payments); iv) external actions (-394.80 million in commitments, -186.6 in payments); v) administrative spending (-58.93 in commitments as in payments); vi) pre-accession expenditure (-300 million in payments). The 2001 budget as it results from the preparatory work of the national delegations will therefore include EUR 95.87 billion in commitment appropriations and 92.5 billion in payments.
On the eve of the Council, commissioner Schreyer denounces "political mistake" that a reduction
in her funding proposals for the Balkans would be
At a press conference on Wednesday devoted to the Budget Council, Commissioner Schreyer strongly protested against the position of the fifteen. According to her, it would be a "political mistake" not to devote 800 million euro next year to the Balkans. "Europe must show it is present, respond to the challenge that has been launched", the Commissioner declared. In addition, the expected reduction in the Meda programme "would be an obstacle to implementing European policy in the region, whereas the foreign ministers have always stressed the importance of the Barcelona process."
Michaele Schreyer, moreover, criticised the 555 million euro reduction to her proposal for agricultural spending, which she qualified as "surprising whereas Member States criticise the proposal to reduce the maximum ceiling of spending under this heading". Finally, the reduction proposed for the heading administrative spending "does not seem to be a very cooperative gesture", whereas the Commission "is doing all it can, in the framework of its reform, to try to use the existing human resources as best it can".