Brussels, 17/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Parliament-Council-Commission meeting on Thursday evening on the Budget 2001 made it possible to prepare the long and difficult consultation to be held between the three institutions next Thursday before the Budget Council. Neither is there agreement on the amount of aid (for Serbia, the Balkans and the Mediterranean) or on how to finance it (the Council refuses not only revision of financial perspectives but also the flexibility instrument). However, respective positions were clarified. The mandate of the Secretary of State to the Budget, Florence Parly (who will chair the Council), is quite clear: - no revision, no flexibility instrument - hence, external policy spending, including 200 million for Serbia, should be financed keeping to the current limit for this category of expenditure. The Council president would nonetheless have to undertake to contact his colleagues by Thursday to discuss the matter before consultation takes place. The EU 15 budgetary experts will meet in a "budgets committee" on Tuesday, and the Committee of Permanent Representatives could tackle the matter on Wednesday.
At the European Parliament, the budgets committee will vote on Wednesday on the mandate that will be given to the parliamentary delegation for consultation. Parliamentary sources indicate there would be consensus for fixing aid to Serbia at around 240 million and for demanding the use of the flexibility instrument (EUR 200 million), deciding not to request, in addition, an increase to the ceiling of Heading 4. The use of the flexibility instrument naturally means raising this ceiling, but the MEPs would be willing to agree to stay with the increase of 200 million. In the case in hand, the MEDA programme would not be financed at the level that the EP voted in first reading, but there would nonetheless be a margin for increase compared to the Council's position.
The trilogue also covered other points, mainly: i) the two correcting letters proposed by the Commission on its requests for additional staff, on one hand --the Council said yes for a large part, the EP said yes placing credits in reserve - and on the agricultural funding on the other; ii) payments - the EP voted in first reading nearly 2.5 billion more than the Council; iii) the question of the creation of a European prosecutor responsible for action against fraud - the Commission should, in this framework as in others, insist that the Member States take its proposal into consideration more seriously.
Coreper this week endorsed the positions reached by the budgets committee on the other points of the draft Budget 2001. It thus: reviewed the level of credits for agricultural market spending (38.816 billion instead of 39.275 during its first reading); hoped to limit the level of payment credits (that the EP had tactically considerably increased during first reading); agreed to re-establish credits for rural development at the level proposed by the Commission; marked its opposition to the different reserve placements decided by the EP at first reading; agreed that the budgetary surplus this year should be included as a receipt in the 2001 budget.