Brussels, 13/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday in Strasbourg (after a debate on Tuesday), the European Parliament will finalise a 2003 austerity budget mainly on external actions, the broad lines of which have been known since the agreement concluded with the Council on 25 November (see EUROPE of 27 November, p.9). The reports by Göran Färm (PES, Sweden) and Per Stenmarck (EPP-ED, Sweden), adopted on 11 December by the Budgets Committee, recommend the lowest possible increase in payment appropriations (+1.9%) and compliance with the ceiling for all headings except that on structural actions. Under the same heading, the flexibility instrument will be used to find the EUR 12.1 million that is still to be raised in order to continue restructuring of the Spanish and Portuguese fishing fleets (after the failure of the new EU/Morocco Fisheries Agreement).
Next year's procedure, which will cover the first EU budget at 25, promises to be far more complex. The draft resolution from the budgets committee insists that adjustment of the financial framework in the light of enlargement should be carried out by common accord between the Council and Parliament. During membership talks, the Council and Commission should take into account the EP's position on the financial framework for enlargement, rapporteurs say.
The 2003 budget, as foreseen by the budgets committee, amounts to EUR 99.694 billion in commitment appropriations and 97.516 billion in payment appropriations. The margin under the threshold of financial perspectives is 2.62 billion in commitments. A projected surplus of EUR 1 billion in 2002 will be included in the 2003 budget, allowing Member State contributions to be reduced by as much.
With regards agricultural spending (EUR 40.08 billion for market spending plus 4.7 billion for rural development), the EP welcomes the creation of a separate budgetary line for export refunds on live cattle, but regrets that the Council has not agreed to reduce the amounts. Furthermore, it calls on the Commission for an annual report on the implementation of regulations on the conditions for exporting live animals.
For structural actions, credits proposed amount to EUR 33.98 billion. The margin of this heading exceeds 12 million (which corresponds to the amount of funding for the restructuring of the Spanish and Portuguese fleets). Under Heading 3 (internal policies), the budgets committee proposes the sum of 6.795 billion in commitment appropriations (with a fringe of 199 million compared to the ceiling of financial perspectives) and 6.204 billion in payment commitments. The rapporteurs welcome the fact that the Council approved the proposals on the funding of the following pilot projects: - preparation of SMEs for enlargement; - programme in favour of the elderly and old; - and cooperation with third countries on the subject of immigration.
On the subject of external actions (EUR 4.955 billion in commitments and 4.853 in payments), the EP should agree to include the sum of EUR 42 million under the "Global Health" Fund for combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, on condition that the funding is sufficient for keeping the EU seat on the board of administration. In a statement, the Commission is called upon to ensure that an identical additional amount (EUR 42 million) be also provided in 2003 by the European Development Fund (EDF). In order to finance the rebuilding of Afghanistan without reducing the spending devoted to the EU's traditional priorities, the budgets committee recommends, as Commissioner Michaele Schreyer had suggested, that the funding available in the 2002 budget, i.e. EUR 55 million, should be used for the implementation of humanitarian assistance to the Horn of Africa. Messrs Färm and Stenmarck welcome the common declaration of November which improves the EP's prior information procedure in the decision-making process for common foreign and security policy (CFSP). The EP is to freeze (place in reserve) the EUR 20 million for North Korea under the Kedo Programme, until assurance has been given about this country's compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
The Parliament will confirm the agreement already reached in July on administrative spending and will leave a sufficient margin for covering certain spending, such as the funds necessary for the "European data protection monitor".
As far as pre-accession aid is concerned, the rapporteurs are against reducing payment appropriations as decided by the Council and express concern about the low level of implementation of such funding. They stress that the reduction in funds in 2003 must not entail deterioration in the budgetary position of the new Member States after 2004. Finally, the budgets committee invites the EP Conference of Presidents to carefully study all the financial consequences before finalising its political decisions.