GENERAL NEWS / (eu) eu/budget

2002 budget surplus (to be paid back to Member States) due mainly to structural funds and internal and agricultural expenditure, says Michaele Schreyer, who will present these results to Ecofin on Tuesday

Brussels, 12/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - As anticipated (EUROPE of 9 May, p.10), the European Budget Commissioner, Michaele Schreyer, was on Monday able to give "good news" to the EU Finance Ministers: once the accounts are definitively closed, the EU budget for 2002 will have a net surplus of 7.413 billion Euros, allowing Member States to benefit, as their contributions to the current budget will be considerably reduced. In fact, in preliminary draft amending budget Nr. 3 for 2003, these...