EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AMENDS 2000 BUDGET TO FUND AID TO MONTENEGRO.

Sitting in plenary session in Strasbourg on 6 July, the European Parliament significantly amended the first Draft Supplementary and Amending Budget for 2000 (SAB 1/2000) adopted by the Council of Ministers on 16 June (see European Report No 2510 for further details). Approving the report by Jean-Louis Bourlanges (EPP, France), MEPs on the one hand made significant technical amendments to the initial proposal but also, and above all, made a fundamental political amendment to the SAB by transferring the grant of Euro 20 million to Montenegro approved by the General affairs Council on 13 June, a grant which the Council, on the advice of the Commission, had chosen to finance through a payment under Heading 4 (External actions) from the MEDA budget, an option challenged by France and Spain. The Bourlanges report also challenged the method chosen...