GENERAL NEWS / (eu) ep/budge 2003

Commissioner Schreyer says Parliament has approved budget that combines rigour with political priorities - President of the Council, Mr Pedersen says budget guarantees enlargement funding

Strasbourg, On 19 December in Strasbourg, the Parliament, Council and Commission signed, accompanied by many smiles and backslapping, the EU budget for 2003 of nearly EUR 100 billion. As President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, pointed out at the end of the voting, which took around a quarter of an hour and which confirmed with almost no exception, the position of the Budgets Committee (see EUROPE 27 November p 9), the signing was achieved in record time. Mr Cox declared that he had...