Brussels, 23/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - At a proposal by Romano Prodi (in cooperation with Commissioners Michaele Schreyer and Neil Kinnock), the European Commission is to adopt, on Wednesday, its annual strategy policy for 2005 that it will present to the Parliament meeting in plenary in Brussels. The main aim of the policy is to ensure smooth transition to the new College that will take up its duties in November.
The document, which defines the political, budgetary and administrative priorities for next year, reviews the many challenges to be faced by the new Commission upon its arrival:
presentation of necessary measures for allowing the adoption, toward end 2005, of new financial perspectives (including the new generation of Structural Funds);
preparation of political and institutional changes that should arise from the results of the Intergovernmental Conference on the new European Constitution;
mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy (detailed examination of economic, social and environmental aspects of Community policies for the years 2005-2010);
updating of the strategy on sustainable development;
definition of a new Social Agenda for the post-2006 period;
consolidation of European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (under Tampere programme);
finalisation of the accession process by Romania and Bulgaria, continuation of the pre-accession process for Turkey and (possible) launch of the pre-accession process with Croatia.
At the international level, the new Commission is expected to take part in work with a view to reviewing the Cotonou Agreement and ensuring respect of certain major deadlines: the round of Doha trade talks must in principle be concluded by January 2005, and the Palestinian State should, according to the "roadmap", see light of day in 2005.
The Commission also gives indications regarding the broad lines of the preliminary draft budget for 2005 which should be presented by the College on 28 April. It evokes the "very difficult" situation regarding administrative spending, a heading which has a negative margin under the ceiling due to the increases in officials' salaries, the consequences of the creation of new posts in 2004 and also the bad news of reducing the ceiling by EUR 94 million (after a technical adjustment of financial perspectives for 2005 to the evolution of national gross income and prices). Furthermore, the Commission calls on the budgetary authority to create, in 2005, 700 new posts for the institutions as a whole (after 1280 requests last year for 2004). In order to allow the staff necessary for EU enlargement to be taken on, the Community institutions may have to review their spending and investment programmes and, where necessary, envisage exceptional measures to make savings, the Commission warns.
Also, the Commission announces its intention of foreseeing an allocation of EUR 200 million (commitment appropriations) in 2005 for reconstruction in Iraq (at the end of last year, the budgetary authority had agreed to make EUR 200 million available in commitment appropriations for 2003 and 2004). As was the case during negotiations on the budget 2004, the Commission is expected to call for the flexibility instrument to be mobilised to finance part of the aid granted to Iraq. According to a first estimate of needs, the ceiling of the external actions heading will be exceeded by over EUR 100 million.