Brussels, 29/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission will adopt a working document foreshadowing the amended proposal on the rehash of the Financial Regulation which has the very tricky task of including as far as possible the European Parliament's amendments (adopted in Brussels in May at the time of the vote on the Dell'Alba report, but without any final vote on the resolution); the Council conclusions (adopted on 5 June); and the opinion of the Court of Auditors (issued on 8 March) (see EUROPE of 30 June, p.12). The Commission is, however, proposing to keep some parts of its initial proposal that it believes are important and justified, and hopes that the regulation can be adopted in the timeframe laid down by the Gothenburg European Council, namely by the end of 2002. The essential aspects of the planned reform are as follows:
Sectoral regulations: the Commission did not accept the idea supported by the EP and the Court of the Financial Regulation taking precedence over sectoral regulations, but pledged to ensure that the latter respect the basic principles of the former.
Internal controls: in the light of some of the EP's amendments, the Commission believes that in order to compensate for the disappearance of centralised prior checks by the Financial Controller, the internal controls carried out by authorising officers meet basic standards.
Liability of authorising officers: the Commission accepted an EP amendment whereby a body has to be set up to help the disciplinary authority.
The budgetary principles were reaffirmed in the proposal, along with exceptions that the Commission believes are justified. In terms of unity, the Commission did not see fit to accept the EP amendments which, for example, called for the Communities' budget to include expenditure on the European security policy, Community agencies and the European Development Fund. The Commission did not accept the Court of Auditors' suggestion of scrapping the mechanism of bringing forward credits since this is an exception to the annual rule. In terms of the principle of universality, the Commission has not changed its view about scrapping "negative" expenses and income, despite the criticism of the Court of Auditors. Negative agricultural spending, for example, resulting from accounts clearance, should be treated as allocated income, in line with current agricultural regulations.