Brussels, 17/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - On 20 July, the Budget Council will carry out the first reading of the preliminary draft budget 2002 on the basis of the agreement reached by Coreper last Thursday (see EUROPE of 13 July, p.8). The Council will begin at 11h00 with the usual consultation meeting with a delegation of MEPs (and in the presence of the European Commission) which should mainly cover compulsory expenditure, namely common foreign and security policy (CFSP), agriculture and international fishing agreements. The meeting will be followed by a lunch together. During the afternoon (around 15h00), the Council will begin its first reading and will establish the draft budget 2002.
The Belgian Presidency does not expect that this first reading by the Council will raise any eyebrows - all the more as the opening of discussions on some chapters could harm the qualified majority obtained at Coreper. France, Luxembourg, Finland and Greece have not joined this majority on the global package. Greece because it would like a "technical arrangement" to be found allowing credits to be classified in favour of Cyprus and Malta (under Heading 4 of external actions) in Category 7 of the financial perspectives (pre-accession strategy). Finland, which already sees itself chosen for hosting the European Food Authority, would like more credits to be allocated for the smooth running of this agency. Luxembourg is against the principle of a lump reduction of 200 million in Heading 1A (agricultural market spending), like France, and against the cuts advocated by the Council in the operating budgets of the small institutions.
According to the Parliament, divergence with Council will mainly be over the fate to be reserved to the EUR 125 million still included in Heading 4 of "external actions" for the fisheries agreement with Morocco. MEPs wish to see part of these funds transferred within this heading, mainly in favour of programmes for Asia and Latin America that the Council plans to reduce by EUR 21 and 17 million respectively. The EP also hopes to hold a discussion on administrative spending, even if it is not a matter of compulsory expenditure. Two remarks will be addressed to the Council: (1) The current margin of EUR 59 million set by the Council during its preparatory work is a "false margin" as the Council reserves itself the right to accept, at a later date, the recruitment of all the 317 officials that the Commission has requested (the Council has only accepted 78 in favour of external delegations, the others being linked to its approval of the Commission proposal on the release of 600 officials); (2) discussions must be continued on the needs of institutions, mainly translation needs, with a view to preparing EU enlargement. The EP considers its needs amount to EUR 18 million, while in the preliminary draft budget (PDB) 2002, the Commission foresees EUR 20 million for all institutions together.
Compared to the budget 2001, Coreper is tabling on an increase of commitment appropriations of 2.1% (that is, EUR 99 billion in total) and 1.97% for payment appropriations. Total payments account for 1.04% of Community GNP, against 1.06% according to the initial Commission proposals. Coreper has agreed to reduce the PDB 2002 by EUR 1.35 billion in commitment appropriations and EUR 2.20 billion in payments, including EUR 1.2 billion (in commitment and payment appropriations) concerning agricultural spending (suppression of the "BSE and foot and mouth" reserve plus a linear reduction of 200 million out of the total budgetary lines of market expenditure except for rice and sheep/goats). There was also a downward revision for the following: - structural actions: reduction of EUR 375 million in payment appropriations; - internal policies: reduction of EUR 42.87 million in commitments and 64.92 million in payments mainly relating to the "education, training and youth", "information and communication" and "internal market" programmes; - external actions: EUR 53.20 million in commitments and EUR 129.41 in payments; - pre-accession aid: cuts of EUR 380 million in payments, i.e. 100 millions SAPARD, 250 million ISPA and 30 million PHARE.