Brussels, 02/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 25 April, the parliamentary committee on budgets approved the final result reached early April on the financial perspectives 2007-2013 and the new text of the interinstitutional agreement (EUROPE 9168 and 9169). The report by Reimer Böge (EPP-ED, Germany) on this dossier will be examined by the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 17 May and probably adopted the day after.
According to the draft report by Mr Böge, the EP considers that the agreement reached by the three institutions on 4 April 2006 was the only possible compromise for the Parliament within the confines of negotiation, concerning a multi-annual budget with a view to ensuring continuity of Community legislation, assuring healthy financial management of EU funds and maintaining the Parliament's legislative and budgetary powers over the coming period. The budgets committee welcomes the agreement reached and especially progress accomplished in the context of the three pillars of its negotiating position. These pillars aim to:
Balance political priorities and financial needs: - Increase (compared to December 2005 agreement reached by the European Council) of €4 billion for certain priority programmes; - a rise of €2.5 billion in funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to strengthen the lever effect of the Community budget in the fields of research, TEN and SME; - financing outside the financial framework of the emergency aid reserve (€1.5 billion) and the EU Solidarity Fund (up to €7 billion), and financing (outside the financial framework) thanks to the re-use of cancelled allocations from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (up to €3.5 billion).
Improve the budgetary structure: An overall amount of €1.4 billion to improve budgetary flexibility, with the possibility of deferring the annual amount (€200 million) if it is not used and of using this mechanism for the same needs during more than one year, and the possibility for the Parliament to assess the functioning of the interinstitutional agreement and the financial perspectives by end 2009 in light of a Commission report possibly accompanied by proposals.
Improve the quality of EU funding implementation and safeguard the EP's prerogatives: principles established in the revised financial regulation, responsibility of Member States in shared management activity with a view to better internal control of EU financing, the need to introduce a co-financing mechanism with the EIB with a view to strengthening the lever effect of Community policies, EP participation in financial planning and in the financing of new agencies, and increased participation by the Parliament in the CFSP decision-making process as well as more democratic control of external actions.
According to the draft report, the EP is nonetheless aware of the fact that a number of shortfalls had not been resolved by the talks. It places emphasis on the system of own resources that it will be appropriate to review in order to avoid national bargaining during negotiations on the following financial perspectives.