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 never signed a piece of paper that was worth so much. Thor Pedersen, the President of the Council, declared that he had a lot of respect for the European Parliament, a respect that had grown during the budgetary procedure.
During the final press conference, Mr Pedersen pointed out that the Danish Presidency especially wanted the budget to guarantee that enlargement was funded and this had been done while respecting budgetary discipline. He also highlighted that payment appropriations would only increase by 1.9% in 2003 compared to 2002. Budget Commissioner, Michaele Schreyer considered that Parliament had been both "creative" (in order to obtain the necessary loans for enabling the administration to prepared for enlargement: Editor's not) and rigorous. Ms Schreyer asserted that it was an important sign to the European Convention that demonstrates that the Parliament should enjoy its full budgetary rights. Ms Schreyer explained that the 2003 budget proved that "strict discipline" could be combined with respect for the political priorities of the Union. The Commissioner also pointed out that commitment appropriations - EUR 99.685 billion - would only increase by 0.26% compared to 2002 and that payment appropriations (which are EUR 97.513: editor's note) would only represent 1.02% of GDP.
Terence Wynn (British Labour Party) Chairman of the budgetary procedure for this year also declared to the press conference that it was a good budget with many "firsts" (agreement on section 5 on administrative spending, from the first reading, agreement on front loading) and demonstrated realism. Göran Färm, the rapporteur on the general budget explained that they had established clear priorities and had kept their promises. He had only one regret, that the vote on reproductive health had been won by anti-abortion elements for entirely "unjustifiable reasons". According to Mr Färm it would be necessary in the future to work on the budgetary system in its entirety, if not, they would need flexibility instruments every year, as the budget would be too rigid. Welcoming the good co-operation (the first time since the second world war, he said) between Swedish Social Democrats and moderates, the rapporteur for the other institutions, Per Stenmark, drew attention to the fact that the budget debate, without taking anything away from the Budgetary Committee, had allowed other Parliamentary committees to get themselves a better hearing.
The Parliament began by approving the report by Colom I Naval (by 417 votes in favour, 378 against and 36 abstentions) on the utilisation of the flexibility instrument, which was necessary for financing specific reconversion action for Spanish and Portuguese fleets, following the failure to renew the EU/Morocco Fisheries Agreement.
By adopting the Färm/Stenmark resolution, Parliament is stressing that it intends to fully participate with the Council and the Commission in negotiations on "developments concerning the enlargement process" and that negotiations on the adaptation of financial perspectives for enlargement "do not suffer from delays".
Adaptation of financial perspectives for 2004-2006: Commission
and trialogue proposal in February 2003
In response to questions by the press on the revision of financial perspectives for enlargement, Michaele Schreyer indicated that the European Commission would make a proposal in February 2003 on adaptation for the 2004-2006 period and that the trialogue would take place that month. The Commissioner explained that this would involve adapting the amounts to the indications given by the European Council of Copenhagen on the envelope for enlargement.