Brussels, 06/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - July's monthly report on the development of agricultural spending in the EU in 2001 refers to an under-execution of appropriations of 1.495 billion euro in subheading 1a of market spending. This data is interesting at this stage as it confirms what the Budget Council (20 July) had estimated, which is that rather than provide for a billion euro for crisis spending, it is more judicious to finance part of the spending resulting from the reimbursement of the bill of foot-and-mouth (800 million euro for now) with the 2001 surplus, and this in the framework of the amending letter that the European Commission is to present in October. Three-quarters of the under-execution (1 billion euro) are recorded in the beef sector (lower volume of export refunds, restriction of the movement of animals in the United Kingdom due to foot-and-mouth, laborious implementation of the purchase of beef for destruction system).
On 31 July 2001, the uptake of appropriations for market spending (spending by Member States from 16 October 2000 to 31 March 2001) stood at 31.27 billion euro, or 78% of total appropriations. The report also stipulates that under subheading 1 b (rural development), there is also a 721.8 million euro margin (uptake of 1.48 billion euro, or 33% of appropriations earmarked for this). Worth noting, that the 2001 surplus was already estimated at 1.19 billion euro in the previous report in June.