Brussels, 04/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is to adopt on Wednesday a communication by Romano Prodi on political strategy for 2004, which includes the enlargement of the EU to ten new Member States high on the list of priorities. In order for Community policies to function fully from day one of enlargement, the Commission will be requesting budgetary authority for 1280 new members of staff from 2004 (to include 500 extra posts to be filled in 2003, but not counting research posts), equalling 32% of the total of additional human resources judged necessary between 2004 and 2008 to cope with enlargement. The two other central themes of the Commission's political strategy are maintaining security and stability in Europe (in particular, to respond appropriately to the citizens' fears regarding illegal immigration), and the preservation of prosperity, economic convergence, social cohesion and an improved quality of life for both present and future generations. This document, which the Commission debated on 26 February, will be presented by Commissioner Loyola de Palacio to the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament next Thursday, prior to a plenary debate in Strasbourg on 12 March.
As well as preparation of conditions for the accession of ten new Member States (respect of legal obligations for present and future Member States, completion of administrative reform while continuing development of governance), the Commission is to carry out accession negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania, and to prepare a report on Turkey, as requested by the European Council. Again in the context of enlargement, the Commission plans to launch the following initiatives in 2004:
- to amend programmes in all political areas to ensure the full integration of the new Member States;
- to apply the Schengen evaluation mechanism to the new Member States to ensure the correct application of certain provisions of the Schengen acquis and to prepare for verifying that the conditions for lifting the internal border controls are met;
- to support the implementation of the new regime of facilitated transport documents in respect of Kaliningrad;
- to reinforce acquis enforcement activities, particularly in the domains of food safety, environment, internal market, employment and social policy;
- to update, codify and simplify the community acquis in line with the Better Regulation inititiave;
- to ensure that all administrative preparations are complete (including the adoption of a new set of Staff Regulations, and meeting the minimum linguistic requirements for 9 (or 10) new official and working languages).
As regards the stability and security priority, the Commission has set itself the specific task of working with the Council to make sure that the maximum of proposals are adopted on the establishment of the European area of liberty, security and justice before the date set for enlargement.
The Commission also hopes to improve the implementation of the action plan with Russia against organised crime, and of the "justice and home affairs" plan with the Ukraine.
The Commission is also wishes to implement new co-operation programmes with third countries in the field of immigration.
In order to contribute to sustainable growth in Europe, the Commission plans to improve economic and budgetary co-ordination between Member States, to update the strategy on sustainable development, to implement the strategy on industrial policy, to prepare to bring in a new strategy in the field of chemical products (notably to set up a new agency to manage the new "REACH" system for the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemical products), to modify the circulation and registration taxes on cars and to put forward a communication on energy taxation in an enlarged EU.
Annual political strategy is linked to the preparation work
for post 2006 financial perspective
The prospect of enlargement makes it essential to look forward to years to come, which means that the Commission will bequeath to the next college- which will include Commissioners from the new Member States a coherent context for negotiations from 2005 with the Council and Parliament on the new financial perspective (see EUROPE of 1 March, p.12, on the document to be adopted by the Commission in parallel on the preparation of the financial perspective post 2006). The experience of Agenda 2000 has shown that decisions on the financial perspective should not be taken at the eleventh hour, as at the Berlin European Council of March 1999. The prevarications in the negotiations on the implementation of the financial perspective 2000-2006 had led to delays in the finalising of the regulations on application and their implementation, particularly in the political structures. Thoughts on the future of the political structures and other common policies will be at the centre of the proposals that the Commission is to adopt in order to outline the next financial perspective.
Budgetary projections for 2004, including Turkey
Before the initial draft of the budget is presented next April, the Commission, in its strategic policy document, evaluates the budgetary imperatives arising from its priorities. For 2004, the Commission is tabling a budget of 111.042 billion euro of commitment appropriation (compared to 99.686bn euro for the 2003 budget), of which 10.974bn euro for expenditure arising from the enlargement of the EU by ten new Member States (2.094bn for agriculture, 6.709bn for structural actions, 1.614bn for internal policies and 557m for administrative costs.
The Commission confirms its intention not to change the amounts of pre-accession aid, even though political reality and the programmes to be funded have changed (aid for Romania and Bulgaria is to be increased and a greater proportion of aid credits made available to Turkey). For Turkey, the Commission is tabling a package of pre-accession aid (in commitment appropriations) of 250 million euro in 2004, 300m in 2005 and 500m in 2006. For Bulgaria and Romania, the Commission believes aid should be increased to 1.36bn euro in 2004, 1.502bn in 2005 and 1.65bn in 2006.
It should be noted that the 2004 budget will be presented in its new form for the first time, that is by fields of activity: economic and financial affairs, enterprise, employment and social affairs, agriculture and rural development, energy and transport, justice and home affairs, external relations, trade, enlargement, fight against fraud, administration, statistics, and research.