Brussels, 29/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to cancel 5 billion EUR in payment appropriations from the 2003 budget. These credits would allow the 1994-1999 programmes of the structural funds to be closed, and thus allow the "funds awaiting clearance" to be wiped off. They will not be used this year. If the Commission's proposal is adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, the Community budget will fall to 0.9% of GDP of the European Union, Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer told the press. When the 2003 budget was adopted, it was anticipated that these payment appropriations would reach 1.02% of GDP.
The Commission has stressed that this measure will allow the Member States' contributions to be reduced, and they can choose to take the reduction for 2003 or 2004, said Ms Schreyer. Assuming they choose this year, the Commission has revised the contributions to the 2003 budget, in millions of Euros, rounded up or down: Belgium 3390 (146 less than forecast); Denmark 1810 (100); Germany 19295 (-1138); Spain 7291 (-386); France 15066 (-838); Ireland 1126 (-59.3); Italy 11903 (-688); Luxembourg 196 (-11); Netherlands 4904 (-242); Austria 1949 (-117); Portugal 1308 (-70); Finland 1326 (-77); Sweden 2326 (-140); United Kingdom 10570 (-908).
The European Commission puts these credit cancellations down to the Member States' delay in presenting their requests for payment for these projects to be closed. It feels that it should be in a position to halve the funds awaiting clearance for the period 1994-1999 this year. Having only dropped from 17.24 billion EUR at the end of 2001 to 15.56 billion EUR at the end of 2002, the Commission believes that the funds awaiting clearance will fall to 7.87 billion EUR by the end of 2003.
The Commission was, however, unable to say how much each Member State would lose in structural funds credits due to the effects of the credit cancellation this year. As the cancellation corresponds partly to delays in the investigation of dossiers, these could still end up being reimbursed. The Commission indicates that some 1.5 billion EUR will be definitively cancelled, because the Member States have already declared that they were giving it up.