Amending budget 6/2007: Section III, Commission, EU Solidarity Fund, accession to the World Customs Organisation, damage requests resulting from legal procedures, Civil Protection Financial Instrument and Financial Instrument for the Environment (LIFE+)

PURPOSE: to present the preliminary draft amending budget 6/2007.

CONTENT: the Preliminary Draft Amending Budget No 6 to the Budget for 2007 (PDAB 6/2007) covers the following points:

• the mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund for an amount of EUR 172.2 million in commitment appropriations relating to a major storm in Germany and a tropical cyclone in France (La Réunion). On 18 January a major storm hit large parts of central Europe causing severe damage in a number of countries. On 24 February 2007 the tropical Cyclone "Gamède" hit the island of La Réunion causing significant damage. Within the ten week deadline set by Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002, Germany and France applied for financial assistance from the EU Solidarity Fund relating to the major storm and tropical cyclone respectively. The corresponding payment appropriations will be redeployed (refer to ACI/2007/2179);
• the creation of a new budget article 14 03 03 to support financial obligations stemming from the accession of the European Communities to the World Customs Organisation.  The Council of the European Union decided on 13 March 2001 that the European Community should seek membership of the World Customs Organisation.  As member of the WCO, the European Community will be entitled to participate fully in all World Customs Organisation bodies which are open to general membership and to be elected in bodies with elected membership. However, participation to this organisation calls for the creation of the following new budget article: 14 03 03 - Membership of international organisations in the field of customs and tax, with a token entry ("p.m."). The financial obligation stemming from the accession of the European Community to the World Customs Organisation as of 1 July 2007 for half year is estimated at EUR 0.5 million. This amount will be allocated by means of an internal transfer;
• the mobilisation of new funds for an amount of EUR 35.5 million in commitment appropriations on article 26 01 50 07 to pay damages to applicants following the Court of First Instance final judgements in Cases T-45/01 and T-144/02, Sanders and others and Eagle and others v Commission on 12 July 2007. The two judgments require the Commission to pay substantial amounts of damages to over 100 applicants, who were former contractual staff at the JET joint undertaking and had claimed damages for not having been recruited as Euratom staff. The corresponding payment appropriations will be redeployed;
• the creation of a new budget article 03 03 02 “Damage requests resulting from legal procedures against the Commission's decisions in the field of competition”. As a prudential measure, it is proposed that a new budget article 03 03 02 “Damage requests resulting from legal procedures against the Commission's decisions in the field of competition” should be created, to take into account the possibility of budgetary implications stemming from rulings of the Court of Justice or the Court of First Instance. The line will be endowed with a token entry ("p.m.");
• the integration into the budget 2007 of the necessary technical adjustments following the adoption by the Council of Decision 2007/162/EC establishing the Civil Protection Financial Instrument for the period 2007-2013; and the adoption by the European Parliament and the Council of Regulation (EC) No 614/2007 concerning the Financial Instrument for the Environment (LIFE+). The changes affect the following budget articles items: 07 01 04 01 and 07 03 07.

Conclusion: the overall needs requested in PDAB 6/2007 amount to EUR 207.7 million in additional commitments. The corresponding EUR 207.7 million in payment appropriations will be sought through redeployment.