Strasbourg, 18/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - In 2004, the 25-member European Union will have a budget of EUR 111.3 billion in commitment appropriations (CA) and EUR 99.72 billion in payment appropriations (PA). This "austerity budget", as Rapporteur Jan Mülder (ELDR) put it, will only reach 0.98% of the Gross National Income (GNI) of the Community, whereas the framework of financial perspective allows it to go up to 1.10%. The PA are therefore EUR 11.8 billion below what the financial...