EU BUDGET 2001: SUPPLEMENTARY AND AMENDING BUDGET TO DEAL WITH BSE CRISIS.

• Position: Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

The SAB, for which provision is already made in principle in the context of the 2001 EU General Budget is intended to fund measures adopted by Member States in December 2000 (see European Report Nos 2553 and 2555 for further details). Regarding revenue, Michaele Schreyer has pledged to fund this additional expenditure by using a part of the budget surplus for 2000, reducing the reimbursement of balances to the Member States. Farm spending now adds up to a little more than Euro 44 billion in 2001, i.e. +7.44% on 2000. The budget for the beef and veal sector is up by a record 58.6%.Following this SAB there will remain just Euro 260 million under the Heading 1 ceiling, a figure that may potentially be increased by 245 million if the Euro/Dollar exchange rate remains at an average of about 0.87 throughout the year. The Commissioner indicated that farm spending has now reached its ceiling, adding that any new measures will have to be funded on the basis of savings, an echo of the conclusions of the Nice European Council in December 2000, which invited the Commission to bring forward anti-BSE measures within the limits of the medium-term financial perspective. The question of the revision of the financial perspective nevertheless remains open, as Joan Colom y Naval (PES, Spain) recalls in his own-initiative report on the...