Brussels, 07/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Tuesday, the European Commission is to approve the preliminary draft budget (PDB) for 2002, in which it intends creating a specific one billion euro reserve earmarked to cover possible expenses on the beef market, and/or those incurred by measures to combat bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and the food-and-mouth disease. At the same time, the budget heading devoted to veterinary and plant health expenses will be considerably increased, to 420 million euro (against 41 million in 2001) to take account, to the tune of 250 million euro, of the refund of invoices presented by Member states in the context of combating foot-and-mouth. As the total cost of expenditure linked to foot-and-mouth is currently estimated at 500 million euro for the Community budget, the Commission could next year present an amending and supplementary budget, if necessary.
In the PDB, the Commission should provide for a total agricultural budget of 46.2 billion euro in commitment appropriations (against 46.59 billion euro according to the financial perspectives) which would allow for a margin beneath the ceiling of 365 million euro. In addition, still in Heading 1, it should count on a drastic cut in spending for ovine meat and an increase of 3% of the fund for the special programme of aid to agriculture and rural development (Sapard) in favour of the candidate countries (555 million a year instead of 540 million). The monetary reserve should stand at 250 million euro, but the Commission should once more condemn the risks of reducing this pool due to the appreciation of the euro in relation to the dollar.
You may recall that according to the priorities that the Commission presented in February, an maximum increase of 3% in commitment appropriations is planned without re-inclusion in the budget and 4.3% with re-inclusion in the budget. The decisions of Berlin allow for an increase in payment appropriations in the order of 7.3%. Spending devoted to structural measures (Heading 2) should take account of the EP/Council agreement on the re-inclusion in the budget, from 2002 to 2006, of allocations for structural measures not executed in 2000 (see EUROPE of 4 May, p.12). As for internal policies (Heading 3), expenses will increase by 4.6% to take account of the increase in multi-annual programmes. For Heading 4 (external expenditure), the Commission considers that it is not necessary to increase spending, following the decision to focus on the initial phase of the efforts made for the Balkans in 2000 and 2001. Within the limits of the ceiling for 2002, "account should be taken of the geographic and thematic priorities, possibilities of the real implementation and the need to have a significant margin for unforeseen events", the Commission continues. The ceiling for administrative expenses (Heading 5) will be raised by 4.9% in relation to 2001.