Amending budget 1/2008: EU Solidarity Fund, budgetary structure for the REA and the ERCEA, establishment plan of FRONTEX, Galileo Programme, budget article on Exceptional crisis expenditure

In accordance with its parallel resolution of 11 March 2008 (please see the summary of the resolution), the European Parliament approved by qualified majority a budgetary amendment to draft budget No 1/2008, in order to reinstate the sum originally allocated for the operational line for GALILEO.

Parliament added a « p.m. » to the budgetary post 06 01 04 12 GALILEO Programme - expenditure on administrative management (volume 4 (Section 3) – Commission) in place of EUR 2 million allocated in the Commission’s preliminary draft budget and the Council’s draft budget.

At the same time, Parliament reinstated the same sum of EUR 2 million in commitment and payment appropriations in article 06 02 10 (GALILEO Programme), which brings draft budget 1/2008 to EUR 890 million in commitment appropriations and to EUR 200 million in payment appropriations (instead of respectively EUR 888 million in commitments and EUR 198 million in payments for the Council’s draft budget.

Parliament justified this amendment as follows: “the creation of the line for expenditure on administrative management can be agreed upon. However, the outcome of the legislative proposal is still pending. Therefore, for the time being, there should be no increase of administrative expenditure to the detriment of operational expenditure as long as the Management structure (GSA, Commission, ESA) for Galileo is unclear.”