Brussels, 30/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - As announced on p. 10 of EUROPE yesterday, on Wednesday the European Commission adopted a preliminary Draft Supplementary and Amending Budget no. 4/2001 which envisages the redistribution amongst the member states of 7.5 billion euros out of the 11.6 billion surplus revenue over the 2000 budget. This preliminary Draft Supplementary and Amending Budget, which will be sent out to the two branches of the budget authority for adoption before the summer, is intended to «fill the EU Finance Ministers and the taxpayer with joy», since it «reduces the resources paid by member states in 2002 from 90.972 to 81.344 billion euros», as Commissioner Michaele Schreyer declared with pleasure when she announced this decision to the press. Part of this 2000 balance (350 million euros) will also make it possible this year to provide «an additional oxygen cylinder to Kosovo», which means that the EU programmes have been crowned with success, added Mrs. Schreyer.
According to the distribution formula for the national resources paid into the 2001 budget, the United Kingdom will enjoy a reduction in its contribution of 4.535 billion euros (2.076 billion of which coming from the British rebate) out of the 9.627 billion euros of the 2000 balance which have not yet been budgetised in 2001 (1.635 have already been budgetised). In reply to the question from a journalist reviving the debate on «the British rebate», the Commissioner replied that the European Council in Berlin was opposed to it being called into question by giving the decision on the equity capital for the period 2001-2003. Mrs. Schreyer stated that the Belgian President intended to discuss the sources of finance of the budget during the European Council meeting in Laken in December, with a view to a «reconversion» of these mechanisms (to make them more «transparent») and to anchoring them in the Treaty provisions.