Strasbourg, 24/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The debate in the European Parliament on the EU budget in 2002, before the vote on first reading on Thursday, was especially marked by declarations by MEPs on the exceptional situation caused by the attacks of 11 September and their consequences on EU action, at times with great budgetary repercussions. Thus, the rapporteur on the Commission's budget, Carlos Costa Neves (Portuguese, EPP) stressed the impact of the "new realities" like the dramatic problem of the Afghan refugees, and hammered home: "We do not want to be systematically confronted with forgone conclusions". Costa Neve thus placed emphasis on the need for Parliament to have "complete and updated" information, and considered that was "not the case, now, regarding the last reform of the CAP or the impact of the foot-and-mouth disease and BSE".
The Council should be able to accept our "reasonable" requests on administrative spending, said Kathalijne Maria Buitenweg (Dutch, Green), rapporteur for the budget of institutions other than the Commission, for whom the Council should also be self-critical regarding the expenses of certain night sessions of the European Councils...(she raised this issue especially regarding the Nice Summit). According to her, for the European Councils, which will henceforth take place in Brussels, they should be able to use the buildings of the European Parliament. Finland's Esko Seppanen (United Left/Nordic Left), rapporteur on the ECSC, recalled that the Nice Treaty had in future to be the legal basis for social spending for workers in the coal and steel sectors: if the treaty is not ratified by all countries, there will no longer be a legal basis, he warned.
The President of the Budget Council, Johan Vande Lanotte, recalled the priorities of the draft budget adopted on first reading in July (see EUROPE of 21 July, page 7) and the new elements that had cropped up since 11 September, with the mobilisation of aid for Afghanistan, Chechnya and Palestine (see EUROPE of 15 and 16 October, page 9) and the need to increase the appropriations for Europol and Eurojust. For administrative expenditure, the Council is waiting for details from the Commission on early-retirement plans. Finally, Vande Lanotte is aware of the importance of what "remains to be spent", but considers that this problem should not be settled by an increase in spending, but by setting payment appropriations that better reflect reality.
For the Commission, the next budget must be based on two principles, flexibility and precaution, to be able to face up to unexpected expenditure, said Michaele Schreyer, announcing that next week she would be presenting an amending letter with new estimates for agricultural spending and corrected forecasts for the fisheries agreements, providing a margin of manoeuvre for the agricultural sector. This has not to be misunderstood by agriculture ministers, said the Commissioner: this margin must serve for truly "unexpected events". Ms. Schreyer regretted that the pre-accession aid programme for candidate countries should not really have started, and acknowledged that something needed doing for EU regions with borders with these countries (EUROPE will return to the rest of the debate at Thursday morning's vote).