2010 budget: section III, Commission

PURPOSE: to present the letter of amendment No 1 to the preliminary draft budget for 2010.

CONTENT: on 3 September 2009, the Commission submitted to the Council letter of amendment No 1 to the preliminary draft budget for 2010.

This letter of amendment concerns expenditure in Section III – Commission – of the Community budget and covers the following elements:

• the increase by an amount of EUR 95 million in commitment appropriations and an amount of EUR 60 million in payment appropriations in Item 19 08 01 02 (European Neighbourhood and Partnership financial assistance to Palestine, the peace process and UNRWA) to support the Palestinian Authority and reconstruction in Gaza;
• the creation of Article 21 06 07 (Bananas Accompanying Measures (BAM)) as a budget structure in view of the possible trade agreement on bananas to be signed with Latin American Most Favoured Nation (MFN) suppliers;
• the reinforcement of Article 21 04 01 (Environment and sustainable management of natural resources, including energy) by an amount of EUR 50 million in commitment appropriations and an amount of EUR 20 million in payment appropriations in the anticipation of an agreement to be reached in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December 2009.

On 9 October 2009, the Council established letter of amendment No. 1 to the draft budget for the financial year 2010 on the basis of letter of amendment No 1 to the preliminary draft budget for 2010 as proposed by the Commission with the exception of:

• the creation of new Article 21 06 07 referred to in point 2 b) above, in the absence of the relevant legal basis;
• the reinforcement of Article 21 04 01 referred to in point 2 c) above, considering that it is premature to take position on any amount and that this issue should be re-examined during the Council's second reading of the 2010 budget.