Strasbourg, 10/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 6 July, with the adoption of the report by Ingeborg Grässle (EPP-Ed, Germany), the EP introduced 130 amendments to the initial proposal to update the 2002 financial regulation applying to the general budget of the European Communities. On 15 March, the EP had approved the amendments to the proposal but had postponed the vote on the legislative resolution. This resolution invites the Commission to amend its proposal in consequence and calls for consultation procedure to be opened if the Council (which is to finalise its first reading of the text) plans to distance itself from the text approved by Parliament. During the March debate, Budgets Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaité had announced that, after the vote by the EP, the Commission will present a new revised proposal (the current proposal dates back to 2005), in which she will take many EP amendments into account and especially: - the explicit reference to the principle of proportionality (“which would contribute to making the procedure lighter for smaller projects”, the Commissioner explained); - information of those requesting subsidies and standard formulas in the same policy areas; - two-phase procedure for subsidy requests which would prevent pointless cost during the initial phase. “Our common aim is to have new and more modern simplified financial rules, better adapted to the new generation of spending programmes which will take effect from January 2007. That is why the timetable is so important and we must keep to our deadlines”, Ms Grybauskaité concluded.