Activites

• 2004/02/23 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Budget 2004/132
  • OJ L 053 23.02.2004, p. 0001-0999
• 2003/12/18 Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading
  • T5-0588/2003 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the report by Jan MULDER (ELDR, NL) and Neena GILL (PES, UK) for the second reading of the 2004 EU budget (section III - Commission) (please refer to the summary dated 04/12/03). It adopted the EU budget for 2004 with a large majority. The figures formally adopted cover the EU 15, but political agreement on the figures for the enlarged Union for the period after May 2004 has already been reached. For 25 Member States, the budget stands, at under 1% of EU Gross National Income (GNI). It should be noted that the budget for 2004 is historic, it is the first for the enlarged Union, and the first in the new activity based format. The Budget for 2004 as adopted by the Parliament for EU-15 amounts to EUR 99 528 million in commitments and EUR 94 618 million in payments, whereas the budget figures agreed for EU-25 account for EUR 111 300 million in commitments and EUR 99 724 million in payments. These levels of payments represent only 0.98% of estimated GNI for the year 2004, compared to 1.06% for EU-15 and 1.10% for EU-25 as established by the Financial Perspective, and leaving a margin of EUR 7 655 million for EU-15 and of EUR 11 829 million for EU-25. The growth of 2.3% caters for enlargement with 10 new member states and covers existing priorities and major new programmes. The first priority for 2004 is of course enlargement. The administrative preparations for enlargement are in full swing, and additional human resources for the Commission of 780 posts have been granted. Recruitment of nationals from the new EU Member States is underway. Among the items covered for the first time figure specifically enlargement related programmes such as the protection of the external borders through the so-called Schengen facility and nuclear safety for new member states. All existing programmes will be open to new member states from 1 May onwards according to the same criteria as for the existing member states. For enlargement, some EUR 11.8billion is available for starting new programmes (commitment appropriations). For new needs, the budget successfully contributes the remaining EUR 160 million to make up the EUR 200 million pledged for reconstruction in Iraq in the years 2003-4. The flexibility instrument contributes EUR 95 million, thus exceeding the existing ceiling for the budget for external affairs thanks to this instrument available for unforeseen events. New priorities have been financed without reducing existing priorities in the external aid sector, with an overall increase of 4.36% over 2003, excluding Iraq, or 7.6% for the external sector as a whole. Pre-accession aid will continue to cover Romania and Bulgaria (EUR 780 million) and Turkey (EUR 250 million), all of which have seen strong increases compared to previous years. For agriculture the amount for the EU 25 will be 46.78 billion, or EUR 2.5 billion less than the maximum planned. For the Cohesion Fund EUR 5.68 billion will be available, and another EUR 35.3 billion for the structural funds. For research the envelope in 2004 represents EUR 4.8 billion, and EUR 778 million can be used for the Trans-European Networks. An Amending budget to be adopted in February 2004 will allow the figures to be changed to the amounts for 25 member states alreadyagreed. This should be adopted without discussions in April, just in time for enlargement. The Parliament has decided to create the budgetary structure (line 22 02 09) for demining activities in Cyprus with a token entry. It invites the Commission, however, to take Parliament's first reading vote into account in the context of its PDAB enlargement and propose the corresponding amount. On administrative expenditure, MEPs propose that the request to fund extra staff at the Commission because of enlargement should be approved. However 25 posts remain in the reserve and allocations therefore will only be released when the Commission implements the pilot projects and preparatory actions, as voted by Parliament. MEPs add that a geographical balance must be observed when recruiting staff from the new Member States. The Union's external action is allocated appropriations of EUR 5 177 million for commitments and EUR 4 947 million for payments, up by 7,7% and 5,4% respectively on the 2003 budget. The total commitment appropriations exceed the financial perspective ceiling by EUR 95 million, the two arms of the budgetary authority having decided to make use of the flexibility instrument provided for in the interinstitutional agreement of 6 May 1999 for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq. The increase in the total appropriations devoted to external aid should make it possible to respond to new needs without cutting back on traditional priorities. The reconstruction of Iraq figures high among the new requirements with EUR 160 million, on top of the EUR 40 million committed in 2003 in line with the undertaking given at the Madrid conference in October 2003 and the humanitarian aid appropriations used for that country (some EUR 100 million in 2003). The Common Foreign and Security Policy budget caters for two police missions, the continuation in Bosnia and Herzogovina and the new action in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, affirming the importance of security and stability. This chapter shows a strong increase of more than 30% compared to 2003. Still under the heading of External Action, EUR15 million was placed in reserve on the budget line for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. For these funds to be released, the Commission will need to put forward a programme to fight drugs and encourage viable alternative crops. At the Tokyo donors' conference in January 2002, the EU promised to provide a total of EUR1 billion for Afghanistan over five years. As regards the funding for Eurostat, 15% of its operational budget and 10% of its administrative budget are placed in reserve (as compared to the 50% and 25% respectively proposed by Parliament at first reading). Two conditions have been laid down for the release of these funds: firstly, the Commission's Internal Audit Service must adopt harmonised criteria to be applied by the decentralised audit units within each Commission directorate-general; secondly, contracts with third parties must be suspended if OLAF shows the existence of fraud or irregularities. The budget as adopted by the European Parliament at second reading includes several declarations made at the conciliation meeting of 24 November 2003. They concern the following issues: - declaration on the EU 25 Budget : the European Parliament and the Council invite the Commission to present early 2004 the enlargement PDAB for the budgeting of the amounts for EU-25 onthe basis of the agreement reached at the conciliation meeting on 24 November 2003, thus taking into account the following elements: - the respect of the global increase of 2,3 % for Payment Appropriations for EU-25, as compared to the 2003 budget including AB No 1 to 5; - as for commitment appropriations, the respect of the decision of the Council 2nd reading in Heading 1, including Amending Letter no 2/2004; - the amounts for commitment appropriations in Heading 2 and 8 of the PDB, in line with the decisions taken at the Copenhagen European Council of December 2002; the amounts added for enlargement in Heading 3 on the relevant lines by the European Parliament at its 1st reading; - they note that for all the other Headings (4, 5, 6 and 7), the budget as it will be adopted in December will already include the amounts for the enlarged Union; - declaration of the European Parliament and the Council on the programmes adopted under co-decision : the European Parliament and the Council remind to their respective bodies that the legislative procedures should in any circumstances respect the adjustment and revision of the Financial Perspective in view of enlargement as approved on 9 April 2003, and leave a sufficient margin for future programmes, including the ones not based on co-decision; - declaration on the basic acts for grants (ex A-30) : the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission will continue their cooperation in order to adopt the legal basic acts before the end of 2003 or at the latest at the very beginning of 2004. They will do their utmost efforts to speed up institutional procedures in the second reading of proposals in co-decision and avoid further conciliation, in order to formally adopt the legal basis in March 2004 at the latest; - declaration of the European Parliament and the Council on Info-Points and rural carrefours.�

• 2003/12/16 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2003/12/15 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• 2003/12/04 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A5-0473/2003
• #2524
• 2003/11/25 Council Meeting
• 2003/11/25 Council amended draft budget published
  • 14840/2003
• 2003/10/23 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0449/2003 summary

    By adopting the report by M Jan MULDER (ELDR, NL), the European Parliament has given, in its first reading, its opinion on the 2004 draft budget. Parliament closely followed the decision of the committee responsible (please refer to the summary dated 9 October 2003) and adopted a series of budgetary amendments. In particular, the Parliament has included in Annex 2 the proposed adjustment of the reference amounts of programmes adopted under the co-decision procedure for the period 2004-2006 and in view of the enlargement process. The following programmes are therefore strengthened: IDA (2001-2004); actions combating and preventing exclusion (2002-2006); Forest Protection (2003-2006); Community Action Programme to promote NGOs primarily active in the field of environmental protection (2002-2006); LIFE III (Financial Instrument for the Environment (2000 to 2004) ; Community cooperation in the field of marine pollution (2001-2006); Action against illegal and harmful content on the Internet (2003-2004); Socrates (2000-2006); Community activities in favour of consumers (2004-2007); Daphne II (2004-2008); Public health (2003 to 2008) for an additional total amount of EUR 43,070 million. The parliament approves the above as a basis for discussion and possible agreement with Council. It also stresses that the amounts beyond 2006 will be decided by the budgetary authority. Parliament reiterates that the main goal of the 2004 budget is to make provision for all those measures that will contribute to making enlargement a success and it considers that integrating 10 new Member States is an unprecedented challenge for the European Union's budget and the most important political priority at the moment; has decided, therefore, to ensure that the appropriate level of funding to cater for enlargement is entered in the 2004 budget and to endorse a series of other measures, such as, inter alia, the targeted topping-up of EU-10 appropriations in specific cases and adapting co-decided programmes to cater for enlargement. It has also decided to endorse measures to improve the financial environment for SMEs with particular attention being paid to needs in the new Member States, to which great importance is attached, since such measures will contribute to achieving more social and regional cohesion. Parliament, on the other hand, notes with great concern the ongoing discussion in the Commission about future political priorities for a revised financial framework post 2006. It considers that this debate is relevant but that no decision should be taken at this stage, particularly in view of the imminence of the enlargement of the Union on 1 May 2004 and of the European elections in June 2004. Parliament believes the decision should be the prerogative of an incoming Commission once constituted and with its own priorities established, with the final decision being taken by the budgetary authority. - Heading 1 : other than the issues set out in the decision of the committee responsible, the Parliament is also aware that, in recent years, animal diseases have had a huge impact on the agricultural sector, with adverse effects for consumers, farmers and other operators. Therefore, it has decided to make appropriations available to study the possibility of introducing, on the basis of the experience of a number of Member States,European-level insurance schemes to cover a share of the cost of eradicating certain contagious animal diseases; - Heading 2 : Parliament: the Parliament has decided to increase the payment appropriations in heading 2 to better reflect Member States' forecasts and to take account of the level of old outstanding commitments, payments for the current year, enlargement-related requirements and the outstanding commitments situation concerning the previous period. It invites the Commission to present a fresh estimate of what is needed for 2004, including for completion of 1994-1999 payments. The Commission is also invited to examine the extent to which 1994-1999 commitments are still valid. - Heading 3 : Parliament underlines the importance of Community support to small and medium-sized enterprises especially in view of the completion of the internal market, the realisation of the Lisbon strategy and the requirements of the Basel II rules. The Parliament also notes that the share of heading 3 given over to the decentralised agencies has been growing as the number of new agencies has increased recently; is of the opinion that the level of subsidy entered in the DGB by the Council should allow the agencies to fulfil their tasks in the enlarged Union; proposes in this context to accept the Commission's forecasts for EU-10. It proposes to enter 10% of the operational expenditure in the reserve pending the evaluation of the preliminary work programme by the competent committee, so as to ensure that the policy in relation to agencies reflects a rigorous budgetary approach and remains under the democratic control of the political and budgetary authorities; is willing to examine the impact of these amendments before second reading. In addition, the Parliament notes with concern that the agencies' staff levels have increased far beyond the average for the Institutions in recent years and asks the Commission, when it takes the initiative to create a new agency, to examine beforehand all risks of duplication of effort and to propose a corresponding redeployment of resources; asks the Commission to submit a report to Parliament by 1 November 2003 providing information on the impact of this development and on the medium-term consequences for heading 3. Moreover, the Commission should submit a report to Parliament by 1 November 2003 explaining the big increase in staff and in appropriations, the transformation of agency staff into officials. Parliament has decided to reinstate the amounts proposed by the Commission in the PDB for research policy, which remains a priority for Parliament; has also decided to earmark EUR 31 million for cancer research and EUR 4 million for a Member State cancer research initiative under Article 169 of the Treaty. It expresses its concern about the possible closure of the Info Points throughout the European Union as from 1 January 2004 and alerts the Working Group on Information about this issue. The conclusions of the Thessaloniki European Council concerning the management of external borders have been welcomed. The Parliament considers, however, that the Council's decision to increase the amount in the PDB to EUR 19.8 million is not justified; has decided, therefore, to enter an allocation of EUR 9 million in commitments and EUR 10 million in payments for this purpose. The parliament is concerned over the problems and irregularities at the Statistical Office and it has decided to place 50% of theadministrative expenditure for the Office in the reserve until the Commission has given Parliament sufficient reassurances that the problems have been solved, that those responsible have been identified and penalised as appropriate, and that measures have been taken to prevent any recurrence of such incidents; - Heading 4 : Parliament recalls that it is the responsibility of the Union to base its contribution (EUR 200 million ) on the needs of the Iraqi people and, in the context of a political agreement, on the conditions necessary for its implementation within a United Nations framework. Parliament calls on the Commission to maintain the level of funding for East Timor, so as to take account, in particular, of the reconstruction needs and international commitments in relation to that country. The Parliament has decided to enter 5% of appropriations in the reserve for the main geographical programmes and for the NGO co-financing line, with the intention of analysing the Commission's procedures vis-à-vis NGOs. Parliament insists that the importance of protecting and promoting children's rights be taken into account when planning geographical programmes and other Commission development policy activities, and that special emphasis should be placed on the search for ways and means of including education for children affected by war or natural disasters in external aid programmes. It also considers it imperative that particular attention be paid in Union measures for poverty eradication to the special situation of disabled people. Parliament has decided to enter Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) appropriations at a similar level to the 2003 budget pending the receipt of further information from the Council on, in particular, the nonprogrammed appropriations and a commitment from the Council to transmit, from now on, a separate and qualitatively improved document containing its priorities and their financial implications for 2004. It has also provided for some appropriations for the new EU Police Mission (Proxima) in FYROM; - Heading 5 : Parliament has decided to make appropriations available in the reserve for the creation of 272 new posts for the Commission's establishment plan in order to incorporate staff from the new Member States. The Parliament recalls that over the course of previous years, it has asked in several resolutions for steps to be taken towards the establishment of a European common diplomacy; points out that the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe provides for the creation of a European external action service under the authority of the future Union Minister for Foreign Affairs; therefore considers it essential that diplomats from the Member States should be closely involved with the nascent Community service by means of temporary secondment to the Commission's external service; - Heading 6 : the Parliament has invited the Council to explore the possibility of establishing a special loan facility for reconstruction measures in Iraq, but also to ensure that this facility is not provided for at the expense of other existing initiatives under the current ceiling; - Heading 7 : the Parliament has reiterated its financial commitment to Bulgaria and Romania, aimed at enabling them to complete their pre-accession work and be ready to join the European Union in 2007.�

• 2003/10/21 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2003/10/09 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0349/2003
• 2003/09/22 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2003/07/18 Council draft budget published
  • 11357/2003 summary

    The Council established the draft EU 15 budget for the financial year 2004 for the other budgetary sections (all except the Commission). The budget is set forth in the present volume of the draft budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2004. The Council used the preliminary draft budget of the European Communities EU 25 for 2004, submitted by the Commission, as the basis for establishing the draft budget. In this context, the Council also agreed on a position for EU 25 with a view to political agreement with the European Parliament by the end of the budgetary procedure. The Council's scrutiny of the institutions' administrative expenditure was based on the following principles: - leaving an adequate margin within the ceiling under heading 5 of the financial perspective, in the interests of sound financial management; this margin should incorporate an amount for the budget to be provided by the European Data Protection Supervisor; - making allowance, in expenditure, for the impact of the revision of the Staff Regulations, as entailed by the political agreement reached on 19 May 2003; - limiting the increase in current expenditure to 2,7%, compared with 2003, this being the maximum rate of increase for the EU 15; - accepting exceptional expenditure put forward by institutions, such as the move to the Berlaymont or the replacement of members of the Commission and members of the Court of Justice; - not accepting the creation of new posts or upgrading of posts for ordinary purposes, save in exceptional cases; should any upgrading of posts be allowed for other institutions in the subsequent budgetary procedure, the case of the requests made by the Council in its own estimate would have to be reexamined; - accepting all the new posts requested for enlargement in respect of language requirements; the minor reductions in other posts requested were mainly for C and D posts; the period for which posts approved have been budgeted for is 6 months; - accepting most of the appropriations requested for enlargement; - accepting the pensions appropriations, after making allowance for the impact of the revision of the Staff Regulations; - placing in reserve the appropriations intended for subsidies under the former Chapter A-30, in the absence of legal bases. As far as each institution is concerned, the following can be noted: - European Parliament (Section I) : under the "gentlemen's agreement", the Council included the European Parliament estimate in the draft general budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2004 without any changes; the estimate was EUR 144,35 million (13,28%) up on the 2003 budget. - Council (Section II) : for its section of the budget for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 524,81 million, including expenditure on enlargement; this takes in expenditure on publication of the Community acquis, as well as EUR 13,12 million for the FADO project and the replacement of the Cortesy and ESDP Net communications networks. The FADO project will involve EUR 2,12 million in appropriations for 2004, a figure set to remain more or less unchanged in future. For Cortesy and ESDP Net, EUR 11 million will be appropriated for 2004, with EUR 35 million estimated to be needed in 2005. For 2006, however, expenditure is forecast at only EUR 10 million. The funding of special representatives, apart from the mission expenses of Council officials assigned to them, will be transferred as from 1 January 2004 to the Commission budget, under policy area 19: external Relations, CFSP activity (EUR 3,1 million). As regards staffing, for its section of the budget, the Council agreed to the creation of 20 new posts for the Secretariat's new tasks other than enlargement. - Court of Justice (Section IV) : for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 220,26 million, including expenditure on enlargement, a EUR 69,66 million (46,26%) increase on the 2003 budget. As regards staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 504 new posts, namely all 246 new language-related posts another 143 new posts and 115 temporary posts. The Council did not approve the creation of 102 enlargement posts, nor the 46 non-enlargement posts requested. All the Court's requests for upgrading or conversion of posts were rejected. - Court of Auditors (Section V) : for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 96,25 million, including expenditure on enlargement, a EUR 19,17 million (24,87%) increase on the 2003 budget. As regards staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 126 new posts for enlargement, namely all (45) language-related posts requested by the institution (10 LA5 and 35 LA7) and 81 other new posts. However, it did not approve the request for the creation of 10 posts for this purpose, nor that for a B5 post for non-enlargement purposes. All other upgrading or conversion of posts was rejected. - Economic and Social Committee (Section VI) : for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 103,78 million, including expenditure on enlargement, a EUR 22,62 million (27,86%) increase on the 2003 budget. As regards staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 110 new posts for enlargement, namely all (71) language-related posts requested by the institution and 39 other new posts. However, it did not approve the request for the creation of 6 posts for this purpose, nor that for 1 post for non-enlargement purposes. The Council rejected the requests for upgrading or conversion of posts (26). - Committee of the Regions (Section VII) : for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 60,01 million, including expenditure on enlargement, a EUR 21,01 million (53,87%) increase on the 2003 budget. As regards staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 162 new posts for enlargement, namely 107 language-related posts and 55 other posts. The Council rejected the requests for upgrading or conversion of posts (24). - European Ombudsman - (Section VIII) : the Council allocated a total amount of EUR 5,44 million for 2004, including expenditure on enlargement, an increase of EUR 1 million (22,52 %) over 2003. On staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 3 new posts under current Expenditure. The conversion without cost of one temporary C5 into one permanent C5 was accepted. The posts requested for enlargement were accepted.�

• #2521
• 2003/07/16 Council Meeting
• 2003/06/13 Commission preliminary draft budget published
  • COM(2003)0400 summary

    PURPOSE : to present the preliminary draft budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2004. CONTENT : the 2004 budget differs from the previous budgets in that it is divided into two. After 1 May 2004 the EU budget will contain appropriations for 25 Member States. For the first time, the date of enlargement falls not on the 1st January but on the 1st May. The preliminary draft therefore contains estimates for the EU-15 and the EU-25. The date of 1 May 2004 imposes some constraints on the budget procedure for 2004 : on 1 January 2004, a budget for 15 Member States (EU-15) will enter into force; this budget will then be amended in early 2004 through an amending budget, entering into force on 1 May 2004 and integrating the enlargement-related expenditure, so as to allow full operation of the enlarged Union (EU-25) from day one. The budget for the EU-15 will take effect at the start of 2004 with an amount of EUR 95.561 in payments and EUR 100.374 in commitments. The increase for enlargement will follow on the date of accession, 1 May. Under the Commission's proposal the budget for EU-25 will reach a volume of expenditure of EUR 100.650 billion in payments and more than EUR 112.214 billion in commitments. However, the EU's expenditure quota will drop to less than 1% of the Gross National Income of the Union. This shows the firm foundation for the financing of enlargement which reconciles ambitious expenditure programmes for the enlarged Union and budget discipline. For both political and practical reasons, this amending budget (affecting most budget lines) should be adopted by a simplified procedure, so as to avoid a complete re-examination of the whole budget. The political discussions on EU-25 figures should therefore be held in parallel to those on EU-15 figures. The Preliminary Draft Budget 2004 thus shows both series of figures, enabling the budgetary authority to discuss and agree on figures for EU-25, whilst actually adopting the budget for EU-15. The 2004 budget is also special in another respect - for the first time it has been drawn up under the new activity-based structure. Concerning the estimated administrative expenditure of the institutions of the European Union (heading 5), this comes to EUR 6.11 billion for the Commission, EUR 752 million or 14% higher than in 2003. This corresponds for the Commission to an increase of 9.8% (EUR 271 million). The increase covers expenditure on the new Commissioners, additional posts for the publication of legislation in the 9 new official languages and various items of administrative expenditure which will rise as a result of enlargement. Savings of EUR 20 million will be made if the new Staff Regulations can take effect on 1.1.2004. With the introduction of activity-based budgeting, most administrative expenditure is now included in the relevant policy area giving thus an estimate of the total cost of the policies implemented by the Commission. It should also be noted that Some specific administrative expenditure, such as the European Schools, representation offices or publications will appear only in specific policy areas. As a general rule, all administrative expenditure of Heading 5 is located in the chapter 01 of the policy areas. The administrative expenditure of the Commission is expected toincrease much less than the other Institutions', for which the forecast rate is more than double (+ 22%) the difference with the 2003 budget reaching EUR 420 million. The main part of this is of course related to the enlargement, in particular for the European Parliament and the Council.�

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/', 'title': 'Budget'}],
• #X018
• 2003/05/13 Council Meeting
  • 2506
• 2003/03/11 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T5-0079/2003 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the report by Jan MULDER (ELDR, Netherlands) on the guidelines for the 2004 budgetary procedure. (Please refer to the document dated 18/02/03.) Parliament pointed out that adopting a budget for 25 Member States in December 2003 for 2004 will give a positive political signal and be in line with the budgetary principles reflected in the Treaty. The Commission is asked to make the appropriate proposals to allow the budgetary authority to adopt a single budget for 25 Member States, taking into account the fact that the 2004 budget will cover only 15 Member States for the first four months of the year. Parliament stressed that its assent to the outcome of the accession negotiations does not imply an agreement on figures for adjustment of the financial perspective. It is prepared to reject any attempt, now that the new Financial Regulation has entered into force, to restrict Parliament's powers granted by the Treaty, in particular the right to amend the draft budget to the same extent as before, including in respect of administrative expenditure. The successful integration of the new Member States will depend, amongst other things, on further improvements in administration and governance. Parliament announced that it would support the institution-building measures under headings 2 and 3, given that the administrative structures of the new Member States must have sufficient resources and technical assistance to facilitate management of structural actions and to avoid delays in launching programmes. New Member States must be promptly integrated into existing EU programmes. Parliament felt that particular importance is attached to the exchanges of employees between administrations and to training measures to prepare the departments concerned for participation in the employment strategy. The Commission is urged to improve the implementation of EU programmes and substantially reduce the administrative burden, not only in connection with the Structural Funds. This exercise must be speeded up and extended to other policy areas such as the framework programme for research and technological development, trans-European networks, education and training, employment and other activities, particularly those relevant to SMEs and NGOs. With regard to internal policies, Parliament mentioned the importance of combating terrorism without jeopardising civil rights, nuclear safety and the situation in Cyprus. On external actions, Parliament expressed concern about the humanitarian needs after conflict in Iraq. It stated its commitment to the financing of its external action priorities in cooperation with regions such as the Balkans and the Mediterranean third countries, as well as the reconstruction of Afghanistan without reducing the support to other regions. Due to serious budgetary constraints, it intends to evaluate the possibility of redeployment and flexibility inside the budget, as well as the recourse to the Interinstitutional Agreement, if the financing of additional needs cannot be covered otherwise. Finally, on the staff reform programme, Parliament underlined the need for an instrument to secure pensions, and cautioned against the increasing trend towards making agency staff officials.�

• #2493
• 2003/03/07 Council Meeting
• 2003/02/18 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0039/2003

Documents

• Budgetary report tabled for plenary, 1st reading: A5-0039/2003
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0079/2003
• Debate in Council: 2506
• Commission preliminary draft budget published: COM(2003)0400
• Council draft budget published: 11357/2003
• Budgetary report tabled for plenary, 1st reading: A5-0349/2003
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0449/2003
• Council amended draft budget published: 14840/2003
• Budgetary report tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A5-0473/2003
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T5-0588/2003
• : Budget 2004/132
• : OJ L 053 23.02.2004, p. 0001-0999

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)