Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-14-Speech-2-147"
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today I have the great honour of presenting Parliament with the results of the meeting of the Budget Council of 16 July 1999 in Brussels. Firstly, I would, however, like to congratulate you all on having been elected to Parliament, and I hope that you will succeed when you take on your new tasks in your careers and lives.
We decided, with regard to construction programmes, to reduce advance payments of commitments with regard to the new construction programmes by 3.5%in the year 2000 instead of 4% as suggested in the preliminary draft budget, which means that the payments would be reduced by EUR 1,023 million. This reduction is necessary in limiting the growth of payments to 2.8% as opposed to the Commission’s recommended 4.7%. It does not require any change of regulations nor does it reduce the reserved funds for construction which will be received by the Member States during 2000-2001. As regards construction work, we also take into account the request put forward by the European Parliament during the Agenda 2000 negotiations and we decided to create a new point in the budget for Community urban initiatives. Commitments for this would be EUR 102 million and actual payments would be around EUR 28 million. The commitments which we have allotted constitute one seventh of the sums agreed for the entire fiscal period.
In discussing the expenditure associated with internal policies, we stressed that it is important to stick to those principles which form part of the discipline of the budget for the new agreement between official bodies, and part of the improvement of the budget procedure. We paid particular attention to the estimates of payments for possibilities of use and the size of approved programmes within the co-decision procedure. Commitments have also been reduced by EUR 129 million and the allocations for expenditure by approximately EUR 216 million.
As regards the strategy promoting the accession of new Member States, we have reduced the payments by EUR 121 million. We considered that smaller payments were required to promote the strategy for accession, and that it did not call for funding at the levels proposed by the Commission in its preliminary draft budget.
As far as administrative expenditure is concerned, we determined the total administrative allocation for all official bodies, including the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Ombudsman, to be EUR 4,664 million, which means an increase of 3.6%on the allocation for 1999.
In accordance with the view of the Council, the resources to be directed towards aid and rebuilding work in Kosovo are definitely to take priority in the draft budget. In the view of the Council, they may be taken from the maximum grants of the new financial framework relating to expenditure connected with external actions by redeploying those funds. For this reason, we decided to make a provision for rebuilding Kosovo, which contains a commitment of EUR 500 million and EUR 280 million of payments. This provision was made by reducing the usual grants which the Commission had allotted to other points of the budget in its preliminary draft for other external actions. The Council does not consider it necessary to change the upper limit of category 4 to restrict expenditure for the year 2000. The creation of a provision of EUR 500 million, approved by the Council, is based on the preliminary estimates of the amount required, which the Commission presented. In the course of time these figures may even prove to be overestimates. On the other hand we must be prepared to allocate funds to improve the situation in Turkey following the earthquake, as well as for the needs of the humanitarian aid required for East Timor.
As for external actions, we decided in the Conciliation Meeting with the Parliamentary delegation on 16 July to increase commitments by EUR 7 million to EUR 40 million which the Council intended to include in the draft budget for the expenditure relating to Community foreign and defence policies. We approved the budget structure for the expenditure in question and your proposal relating to the nomenclature.
I will now summarise the Council’s decisions on the effect on grants included in the draft budget.
First of all, the commitments total EUR 92.3 billion. This is a reduction of EUR 4.5 billion or 4.7% in comparison with 1999. Payments total 87.9 billion, which is an increase of EUR 2.3 billion or 2.8% in comparison to the budget for 1999. As a second point, the total sum of payments corresponds to 1.09%of the Community’s gross domestic product. Thirdly, the upper limits for external actions and internal policies leave latitude to the tune of EUR 222 million and EUR 22.5 million below the maximum sums of the Financial Perspective.
Finally, I would like to thank all those members of the delegation from the European Parliament who took part in the discussions of the Budget Council held on 16 July, and also all of those people who are no longer Members of Parliament. In addition, I await with interest the continuation of co-operation with the present Parliament, and in particular with Terence Wynn, who I would like to congratulate on being selected as Chairman of the Committee on Budgets. I also look forward with interest to a continuation of co-operation with both rapporteurs responsible for the fiscal year 2000, Jean-Louis Bourlanges and Kyösti Virrankoski. Our common aim is to secure the successful outcome of the year 2000 budgetary procedure, a task which our official bodies have been capable of carrying out in previous years. The successful co-operation of those having control of the budget is based on mutual trust. For this reason I hope that both budgetary powers will stick to the these issues for which a consensus was reached in the unofficial trialogue held last week, and that supplementary budget 4/99 can be approved as it is without amendments or delays arising from any amendments.
The unyielding Balkan crisis overshadowed the budgetary procedures relating to the fiscal year 2000. The preliminary proposal of the Commission for the year 2000 budget had scarcely been completed when it became clear that efforts would be required from Europe to repair the damage caused by the conflict in that area and, in particular, in Kosovo. In addition, other recent events, such as the earthquakes in Turkey and Greece and the recent development in East Timor require those having control of the budget to react swiftly. Efforts such as these also place huge demands on finances.
The largest task of this budgetary procedure has been in the development of finances for the rebuilding operations in Kosovo. This became clear when the year 2000 budget was considered for the first time at the meeting with the parliamentary delegation on 16 July. On the basis of the aforementioned meeting, this matter became the most important issue of the negotiations between the parties with budgetary control in the year 2000 budget procedure. If the parties concerned are willing, it is however possible to find a solution which is satisfactory for both sides.
Both bodies having budgetary control presented their views on rebuilding Kosovo at the meeting held on 16 July. The rebuilding of Kosovo, and the solution to the Kosovo question, is the central prerequisite for the success of the budgetary procedure of the fiscal year 2000. The results of the first Conference of Donors held on 28 July are, however, encouraging from this point of view. Moreover, the estimates of damage which have been specified point to the fact that a complete financial package needs to be devised. Similarly for its part, the Union will respond to the financial needs arising from the earthquakes in Greece and Turkey and the needs in East Timor, as I mentioned earlier.
Next, I would like to introduce the results of the first hearing of the Council regarding the year 2000 budget, after the fruitful Conciliation Meeting arranged with the parliamentary delegation. Our procedure is based on the new agreement between official bodies drawn up on 6 May 1999 concerning an improvement to the budgetary procedure and discipline with regard to the budget. It is important to observe both the framework proposed in the new agreement between official bodies concerning expenditure, and also the detailed procedures contained within it to improve co-operation between official bodies.
We dealt with the matters affecting the financial year 2000 in accordance with the following principles. Firstly, in the autumn, under the new agreement between official bodies, the letter of amendment is examined. This relates to expenditure connected with agriculture and with the agreement on fishing, so that it is possible to take account of new estimates on the need for grants without, however, excluding a reduction in the level of grants in terms of less agricultural expenditure. Secondly, it has been decided to observe commitments as regards construction tasks. Thirdly, a clear focus is defined for the budget allocations allotted to other policies, and it is the intention to retain some flexibility within the framework of the maximum figures of the categories of the Financial Perspective.
When we studied the preliminary draft budget in general terms and also the overall growth, we started from the assumption that in preparing the year 2000 budget, at least the same degree of discipline would be observed as in the preparation of national budgets. Our procedure, as regards administrative expenditure, was based for its part on the following principles: firstly, the growth of all relevant expenditures is limited, excluding unavoidable exceptions; secondly, after the possibilities for restructuring of activities have been thoroughly studied, new measures are established in a limited way for known areas and, thirdly, concerning evaluation of those measures, the procedure will not be changed or corrected for reasons of political expediency except in particularly well-founded cases. We also consider it appropriate to observe the approach used in approving the 1998 and 1999 budgets and to decide on the total allocations to be bestowed on small official bodies.
In accordance with the above-mentioned principles, agreement has been reached on a number of important decisions of the expenditure category, which I will briefly introduce now.
As far as agriculture is concerned, we followed the same discipline in our decision as we applied to other areas of the budget. We introduced a fixed reduction of EUR 375 million for allocations relating to marketing. We retained the allocations proposed for expenditure relating also to rural development and accession measures which were in the preliminary draft budget. The section of the budget relating to agriculture would also be based, as far as possible, on current information and, in accordance with this, the Commission will update the information for the preliminary draft budget during the autumn by means of a letter of amendment. We will continue to examine the expenditure associated with agriculture on the basis of that letter of amendment in order that we may be able to draw up a final decision on the matter."@en1
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