BUDGET 2003: SOLUTION FOR ENLARGEMENT-RELATED ADMINISTRATIVE NEEDS IN THE OFFING.

The Draft Budget for 2003, as amended by the European Parliament, is presumably the last one that will apply to the 15-member EU, hence the preparations for enlargement loom large in its structure. Apart from the higher payment appropriations for heading 7 (pre-accession), the MEPs have discovered an innovative idea to pay for the recruitment of 500 Commission and 216 Council employees, without upsetting the balance in heading 5 (administrative spending). The aim to deploy the frontloading technique for certain items of expenditure. These primarily involve real estate costs plus the expense involved in publishing the EU's legislative achievements in the languages of the Member States-to-be. The basis for this frontloading would be appropriations not used by various institutions in 2002. The idea then is to ensure scope for paying the wages of new employees from the Budget for 2003.

To start with, the Parliament's Committee on Budgets suspended entitlement to these advantage payments for the Council, but its amendment was thrown out during the plenary session. The total amount of under-used resources available for frontloading is to be computed by the Commission in the context of a Supplementary and Amending Budget expected to be tabled on November 13. On the face of it, and subject to an inventory being made, the Commission is expected to have about Euro 72 million worth of unused appropriations in 2002, the Council 7 million, the other institutions (Court of Justice, Committee of the Regions and so on) 6 million, and the European Parliament is prepared to provide 43 million, but nonetheless plans to recover this sum in 2003.

The compromise is expected to be waved through by the Council but the two branches of the Budgetary authority are bracing themselves for challenging talks on funding heading 4 (external actions) and, to a lesser extent, heading 2 (structural measures). The European Parliament has boosted external payments in the light of its own key concerns, which puts a strain on the financial perspective ceiling. And on top of this, it has cut back the funding the Council planned for the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy. Consequently, the 10 million earmarked for funding the police mission in Bosnia would not be covered by the Common Foreign and Security Policy, under the supervision of the Council, but support to the Balkans (CARDS programme), under the management and supervision of the Parliament. The negotiations are set...