Brussels, 11/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - the European Parliament has approved supplementary funding for the 2004 budget that will enable the EU to welcome the ten new Member States into the Community on 1 May. This funding increases to EUR 11.8 bn in commitment appropriations and EUR 5.1 bn in payment appropriations. The report by Jan Mulder (ELDR, Netherlands), adopted on Tuesday approves the amending budget No. 1/2004 (as it is) presented on 4 February by the European Commission. The 2004 budget for the enlarged EU has increased to EUR 111.3 bn in commitment appropriations and EUR 99.7 bn in payment appropriations (EUROPE 5 February 2004, p 8).
The Parliament also adopted in first reading (co-decision) several report from Reimer Böge (CDU) and Joan Colom I Naval (PES, Spain) on the adaptation of credit reference for codecision programmes 2004- 2006 (section 3 in internal policies) to take enlargement into account. 29 programmes will be affected, including the 6th framework programme for research and technological development (funding for which in 2004 - 2006 will increase from EUR 17.5 bn for the current EU to EUR 19.235 bn for the 25 member EU 25), the "Marco Polo" programme, common interest projects involving Trans-European transport networks and energy infrastructure, Trans-European telecommunications networks, the "Intelligent Energy for Europe" programme, forest la protection, "Socrates" and "Youth" programmes. In total, the amounts proposed for these programmes rise to EUR 29.364 bn for 2004 - 2006 (including EUR 2.581 bn for enlargement).