Brussels, 06/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 6 July, the Committee of Permanent representatives of Member States to the EU (Coreper) finalised its preparatory work on the first stage of the draft 2007 budget, the first from the new financial framework covering the period until 2013. The Ecofin Council (in the “Budget” session) meets on 14 July to adopt, on first reading, next year's draft budget, which, as is often the case at this stage in the proceedings, contains many reductions in funding compared with the initial proposal from the European Commission.
According to the Coreper results, the 2007 budget should amount to €125.75 billion in commitment appropriations (up 3.48% on 2006) and to €114.61 billion in payment appropriations (up 2.26% on 2006). This represents a reduction of €1.02 billion in commitment appropriations and €1.75 billion in payment appropriations compared with the Commission's draft budget (see EUROPE 9184). In payment appropriations, the budget envisaged by Member States represents 0.98% of Gross National Income (GNI) of the EU, compared with 1.00% in the initial proposal. The reductions in funding suggested by Coreper are:
Competitiveness (heading 1a): the largest reductions concern the 7th Framework Programme in Research and Development (- €98 million in payments, on a proposed total of €3.9 for this programme).
Cohesion (heading 1b): the Council suggests reducing especially payment appropriations for the structural funds (- €425 million).
Natural resources (heading 2): the Council draft suggests particularly a linear reduction of €730 million in agricultural aid and market support.
Citizenship, freedom and justice (heading 3): the Council operated slight reductions in some programmes to allow an adequate room for manoeuvre below the ceiling.
External actions (heading 4): the Council suggests a reduction especially in pre-accession aid.
Administration (heading 5): Coreper accepts all the posts requested by the Commission for 2007: 582 because of the accession of the 10 new Member States in 2004, 208 for the enlargement with Romania and Bulgaria, and 11 for the translation of Irish Gaelic. The Council, however, reserved the funding for 142 posts, while waiting for the Commission to demonstrate the proper functioning of the recruitment procedure. A draft statement allows for positions left vacant in 2007: 200 posts (in all institutions) made available through retirements, and calls on the Commission to get rid of 500 posts by 2010.