Strasbourg, 15/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Commissioner responsible for the budget, Michele Schreyer, presented the Parliament with a preliminary general "new look" budget for 2004 (see EUROPE 1 May p 11). In effect, the budget is now presented according to the ABB (activity-bases budgeting), although a traditional representation is still available. Ms Schreyer stressed that it's the first time that enlargement had taken place in the middle of the year, which involved an additional challenge for the budgetary authorities. The main instruments for supporting the economic reform process in new Member States, structural funds, will play a particularly important role in the enlarged Union. But the chapter which sees the biggest increase is the one on funding measures for the European area for security, freedom and justice.
No debate has been planned for at this stage but British Labour Party member, Terence Wyn, Chairman of the Budgetary Committee, briefly commented on the new style budget, saying, "the Commission presented us with what we asked for (notably because this new presentation is more transparent) but now we don't know how to use it. the Commission will have to grant sufficient time before the vote for deciding how it is going to vote".