Amending budget 7/2007: increase in the forecast of revenue, VAT and GNI balances, decrease of payment appropriations in certain budget lines

The Committee on Budgets unanimously adopted the report by James ELLES (EPP-ED, UK) approving the Draft amending budget No 7/2007 of the European Union for the financial year 2007. The report highlights that the Draft amending budget No 7/2007 covers the following items:

• a substantial increase in the forecast of revenue, in particular for the revision of the forecasts of VAT and GNI balances (EUR 3 830 million);
• further decrease of payment appropriations in budget lines for headings 1a, 1b, 2 and 3a (EUR 1 651.4 million), after the redeployments proposed in the global transfer DEC36/2007 (EUR 425 million).

Recognises that the current under-implementation of certain lines might be a consequence of the late adoption of legal bases in the 1^st year of the multi-annual financial framework, MEPs insist on closely monitoring the implementation of the 2008 budget through the different tools such as the regular budgetary forecast alert and monitoring groups.

Lastly, it underlines that there will be a need for a higher amount in payments in the 2008 budget.