Brussels, 14/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - Based on a proposal of Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer, the European Commission adopted on Wednesday a supplementary and amending budget (SAB) to the 2002 budget of EUR 77 million that should allow for administrative expenditure linked to enlargement be met and economise to be made in the 2003 budget. All the institutions will help contribute to this amount and it should enable the Commission to obtain the 500 additional posts (temporary agents for the most part from candidate countries), which it has been asking for since the beginning of the year. It will also help to get the Community Acquis published in candidate countries' languages.
The Commission had made a commitment to present such a SAB, which will involve all the institutions from the first reading of the draft 2003 budget by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 25 October p 13-14). The European Parliament will lend EUR 42.6 million to the Commission (even though it wants EUR 35 million to be paid back to it next year). Our of the EUR 29 million initially expected in the 2003 budget for the publication of the Acquis, EUR 25.6 million could be committed in 2002 (EUR 8.7 million of which in the hands of the Commission and EUR 16.9 million the responsibility of the Council).