Brussels, 12/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 12 April, the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) marked its agreement of principle on the interinstitutional agreement implementing the financial framework 2007-2013 based on the results of the 4 April talks (EUROPE 9168 and 9169). All Member States said they accepted the final text, which has still to be reviewed by linguist-lawyers before being formally adopted by the Council without debate in coming weeks. The EP will adopt the text during its plenary from 15 to 18 May in Strasbourg. A number of delegations, however, stressed the need to review the spending graph for CFSP (€250 million on average over the period 2007-2013, but with a gradual rise in funds each year) to take into account the important mission (police, rule of law) that the EU plans to conduct in Kosovo in 2007.
According to the final compromise, the maxim amount of expenditure by the 27-member EU for 2007-2013 is €864.316 billion in commitment appropriations, i.e. 1.048% of Gross National Income in the EU. Payment appropriations amount to €820.780 billion (1.00% of GNI). The December 2005 European Council had tabled on €862.363 billion in commitment appropriations (1.045% of GNI) and €819.380 billion in payment appropriations (0.99%). The final agreement therefore makes it possible to review these amounts upwards by €1.953 billion in commitment appropriations and 1.4 billion in payment appropriations.
The budgetary envelope of €864.316 billion is thus shared out as follows: €382.139 billion for Heading 1 “sustainable growth” (€308.041 for cohesion and €74.098 for competitiveness and employment), €371.344 billion for Heading 2 “management of natural resources” (including €293.105 for agricultural market spending and direct subsidies), €10.770 billion for Heading 3 “citizenship, freedom, security and justice”, €49.463 billion for Heading 4 “external actions”, €49.800 billion for administrative expenditure in Heading 5, and €800 million in compensations.