EU BUDGET: HIGHER SPENDING IN 2005 WEIGHING ON POST-2006 FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE.

• Position: Brief Article

The May 1999 Inter-Institutional Agreement (IIA) on budgetary discipline and improvements to budget procedure, framing the 2000-2006 financial perspective, requires the Commission each year, in anticipation of the budgetary procedure, to undertake a technical adjustment of the financial perspective according to the evolution of European Union GNI and prices. This first phase of the budget procedure shows that the total ceiling for commitment appropriations for 2005 will be Euro 119.419 billion, representing 1.14% of GNI. The total ceiling for payment appropriations is Euro 114.060 billion or 1.09% of GNI. In view of current economic forecasts, this leaves a gap under the own resources ceiling of Euro 15.732 billion (0.15% of EU-25 GNI).

By comparison with circumstances anticipated in the technical adjustment for 2004...