Brussels, 29/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - After three days of discussions, the Council's Budgetary Committee reached, on Thursday, an agreement by qualified majority on the preliminary draft budget 2002 (APB) to be forwarded for examination to Coreper (10 July), which may bring changes before the first reading of the Council on 20 July. The Committee decided to do away with the reserve of one billion euros (despite the opposition expressed by the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands), that the Commission had proposed (see EUROPE of 9 May, p.12) to face up to eventual spending due to the BSE and foot and mouth crises. Other cuts concern structural policy (LEADER EUR -65 million, INTERREG EUR -195 million, EQUAL EUR -90 million, and URBAN -25 million), external policy (including MEDA, EUR -50 million). Payment appropriations were reduced from 97.8 to 95.59 billion (from 100.3 to 99 billion for commitments), which leaves an overall margin of EUR 1.82 billion under the "Berlin ceiling" (instead of around 500 million in the draft preliminary budget). At this stage, credits would increase by 2.1% in commitments and by 2.46% in payments compared to the 2001 budget (as opposed to 3.4 and 4.8% with the initial proposals). EUROPE will come back to this.