Strasbourg, 25/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - Adopting a report in Strasbourg on 24 April by Kyosti Virrankoski (ALDE, Finland), the European Parliament strongly regretted that the European Commission's Annual Policy Strategy for 2008 did not 'adequately reflect Parliament's priorities' and 'expects to see due account taken of this resolution in the 2008 Preliminary Draft Budget (PDB)' due to be adopted by the European Commission on 2 May 2007.
The MEPs point out that the 2008 budget 'will be prepared, presented and debated against a backdrop of the 50th anniversary of the signature of the Treaty of Rome and a renewed push to see progress on the Constitutional Treaty'. They note 'that 2007 will see the start of preparatory work on the 2008-2009 full, wide-ranging review (mid-term review) of the 2007-2013 multi-annual financial framework (MFF).' The EP 'expects precise proposals from the Commission as regards the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy and asks therefore to be informed about the arrangements for, and scope of, the mid-term review that the Commission intends to conduct with a view to assessing the initial results of the 2003 reform.'
The European Parliament 'notes the presentation by Commissioner Wallstrom to the Conference of Presidents on 8 February 2007 on the Commission's legislative and work programme 2007 but regrets the lack of interaction between the Legislative Work Programme and the budget procedure.'
The EP 'awaits with interest the results of the screening exercise, being carried out by the Commission services on the Commission's real staff needs, that are due to be presented on 30 April 2007', 'convinced that this screening of Commission staff is a key exercise allowing the Commission to identify its real potential, and to provide more staff for the new political priorities such as energy, climate change, immigration, the implementation of multi-annual programmes and oversight of the transposition of EU law in the member states.' The MEPs welcome 'the principle of redeployment of staff according to political priorities but consider that the rate of redeployment should be more ambitious than 1%.' (lc)