Brussels, 06/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 5 December, in an effort to support the compromise attained by the Council, the European Parliament's budgets committee completed its second reading recommendation on the EU's draft budget for 2007. The European Parliament is expected to adopt next year's budget without any problems on 14 December in Strasbourg. It is expected to reach €115.5bn in payment appropriations and will represent 0.98% of the EU's Gross National Income (GNI) (with 27 members) (and €3.6bn more than the budget for 2006). Members of the budgets committee are suggesting that the €50 million reserve be lifted in credits for administrative spending by European Commission officials. In the first reading the EP decided to place this envelope in reserve to encourage the Commission to provide certain guarantees, particularly on the recruitment policy for new officials.
The agreement between institutions on the level of payment appropriations for the 2007 tax year will enable the EP to distribute an envelope of €195 million to some of the actions they consider as priorities. The main areas where payment appropriations will be strengthened are: +29 million for competitiveness and innovation (20 million for the Lifelong Learning programme (583.6 million) and +17 million for the external frontiers fund (95 million in total).
By adopting the draft report by British Conservative James Elles, which will be submitted to the vote at the EP, together with budgetary amendments, the budgets committee points takes note that the suppression of officials' posts as initially sought by the Council will not longer be implemented. It welcomes the commitment by the Commission to carry out an assessment of its personnel needs in the medium term and present a detailed report on this subject before 30 April 2007. the budgets committee invites the EP to release the amounts from the reserve under the administrative section, following the letter from José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, who says that he is prepared to respect the conditions implemented by the Parliament in the unblocking of the reserve (a strategic examination of the personnel in the Community institutions in 2007, with better coordination in the annual policy strategy of the Commission, which will be submitted to a vote at the EP in February 2007).
In keeping with the spirit of the agreement with the Council, the EP is going to re-establish credit appropriations initially proposed by the Commission for Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) to the tune of €159.2 million. It is hoping that the Council will respect its promise to continue to inform it about EU funded missions. Finally, the EP welcomes the declaration from the three institutions on the environmental Life+ programme. It plans to allocate €15 million for transitory actions in the event of any legal loopholes between the beginning of 2007 and the final adoption of the legislative act. (lc)