Brussels, 27/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption last Thursday of the report by Carlos Costa Neves (EPP-ED, Portugal), the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets insisted that the priorities of the 2002 budget be essentially geared to reform of Common Agricultural Policy and the keeping of EU external relations commitments. The BSE crisis should encourage the EU and Member States to go further in reform of CAP, given not only the next round of talks under the aegis of WTO but also the prospect of enlargement. The report states that the Commission must take account of such elements in its assessment report on the future of agricultural spending, awaited for 2002. The measures to be taken must come consistently within the context of a long-term strategy for this sector, a strategy that should be formulated by 15 September 2001. The parliamentary committee hopes to closely examine the effectiveness of pre-accession spending and recommends more rapid convergence between candidate countries and Member States. MEPs stressed that account should be taken, in an "appropriate" manner, of needs in payment appropriations for rural development spending headings, structural actions and pre-accession.
Regarding the keeping of EU commitments on external relations, MEPs recommend a more rigorous assessment that is both "qualitative and quantitative" of the different programmes and results obtained in order to contribute to a more coherent fixing of priorities. The Council should abstain from floating initiatives that have financial impact, without prior consultation of the EP, say the MEPs, who also state they are eager to receive the assessment by the World Bank on the needs for reconstruction of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As far as horizontal issues are concerned, the parliamentary committee welcomes the application of the system for establishing activity-based budgets. It also restates its position on the abolition of the distinction between compulsory expenditure (CE) and non-compulsory expenditure. It recognises the importance of recasting the financial regulation while criticising the decision of the IGC not to introduce co-decision on financial regulation. This report will be examined during the plenary session next week in Strasbourg.
Budgetary guidelines for 2002 for the other institutions
The budgets committee also adopted the report by Dutch Green member Kathalijne Buitenweg on the guidelines for the 2002 budget for the other institutions. The latter are invited to apply austerity budgets that go hand in hand with a sound financial management. The rapporteur recalls that, under the ceiling for Heading 5 (administration), the margin is subject to growing pressure. It also admits that an early retirement regime, that comes within an activity-based budgeting system (ABB), would be an important instrument for personnel policy for increasing the efficiency of the administration. Ms Buitenweg is convinced that the 2002 budget for the EP should allow it to start preparing for enlargement in 2004. She recalls that the Parliament is committed to setting in place, before 1 January 2002, an internal audit service and that the necessary funding should be earmarked to this effect. The rapporteur would like the EP to renew its support to the capital injection policy with a view to buying buildings as soon as possible. The main remarks concerning the other institutions are:
Council: COBU calls for no operational spending to be included in the budget, as such an approach would be counter to the interinstitutional agreement, and to do everything possible to respect the requirements of budgetary constraint (a 5.6% increase in the 2001 Council budget is noted compared to the previous year).
Court of Justice: Delays in real-estate projects come under the spotlight.
Court of Auditors: COBU notes that work for extending buildings will begin this year and welcomes its commitment to remain within the limit of EUR 25 million (1998 prices) for the total cost of investment.
Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions: The rapporteur notes the decisions of the European Council of Nice aimed at increasing the number of members of the two committees, and considers that it is appropriate to pursue renovation of the Belliard building.