26/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - By adopting, without amendments a report by Astrid Lulling (Luxembourg, EPP), the EP approved the Council's common position on the Community statistical programme 2003-2007. On 30 September, the Council agreed to most of the amendments tabled by Parliament on first reading, notably aimed at guaranteeing high quality comparable statistics thanks to the alignment of the basic definitions and the more significant indicators, and to spread the statistics according to sex. The Fifteen did, however, refuse the some 30 million euro increase the budget for implementing the programme.