MAXIMUM 3.3% INCREASE IN EU BUDGET SPENDING IN 2001.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Monetary Affair has proceeded this year (as it does every year in keeping with Article 272 of the Treaty - formerly Article 203) to calculate the maximum rate of increase in non-compulsory spending for the year 2001 Budget. Various statistical parameters have led officials to determine a 3% maximum rate of increase. Pedro Solbes, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, and Michaele Schreyer, European Commissioner for the Budget, have forwarded this finding to the budget authorities. The maximum rate of increase may be exceeded only by...