2003 budget: other sections

The Council reached an agreement on the draft budget for 2003 for the other institutions (except the Commission), it is based on the need to: 1) comply with the annual expenditure ceilings set by the financial perspective for 2000-2006; 2) provide adequate funding for the European Union's various priorities, in particular the enlargement process. The total administrative appropriations for all the institutions (including the European Parliament) is thus set at EUR 5.364.526.883 which represents an increase of 3.6% in comparsion with those for 2002. The salient features of the administrative expenditure of the institutions are given below: - to increase in expenditure to prepare for enlargement : given that the preparation for enlargement is a key priority for 2003. The budgetary authority agrees, within the constraints set by the financial perspective, to provide Community institutions with adequate appropriations and incentives to prepare for enlargement in 2003. The ceiling of heading 5 of the financial perspective in 2003 should be respected and the flexibility instrument for administrative expenditure should not be used, as suggested by the Commission; - to endeavour to finance the publication of the acquis communautaire by means of frontloading and anticipating expenditure in the 2002 budget with the corresponding reduction of pressure in the 2003 budget, while respecting the Gentlemen's Agreement. Both arms of the budgetary authority undertake to facilitate the frontloading procedure, consisting of mopping up transfers within institutions and, where appropriate, a Supplementary and Amending Budget. - to reserve EUR 18 m in a specific and ringfenced reserve in the Council's budget. This specific reserve for the acquis in the Council's budget will be transferred to the Commission's budget in accordance with the frontloading operation, as if it were part of the Commission's budget. û to reserve a margin of EUR 16 million under Heading 5 for eventual needs in particular concerning the European Data Protection Supervisor. The Council intends to follow up on the reports from the Secretaries-General on the evolution of heading 5 and on interinstitutional cooperation, which has already resulted in savings of 0,5% of recurrent expenditure in all institutions. Moreover, the Council accepted exceptional early retirement measures, including for the staff of the political groups of the European Parliament. For payment appropriations, growth in the volume of appropriations was controlled by taking into account in particular the capacity for utilisation, the likely rate of payments under outstanding commitments and constraints upon national budgets. In this context, the overall budget proposed for pre-enlargement allows new posts to be created or appropriations for auxiliary staff to be entered for all the institutions, with particular attention to language requirements. A total of 311 new permanent jobs have been agreed - Council (236), the Court of Justice (53), the Court of Auditors (14), the Economic and Social Committee (7)and the Ombudsman (1). The following elements should also be noted. These are the individual characteristics of each institution: - European Parliament (Section 1) : budget of EUR 1.051.644.375 by applying the "Gentlemen's Agreement", i.e. an increase of 1,6% in comparison with the 2002 budget; - Council (Section II) : budget of EUR 430.013.000 (EUR 18 million in reserve, i.e. an overall increase of 7%; - Court of Justice (Section IV) : budget of EUR 151.637.022 increasing by 2,49% in comparison with 2002; - Court of Auditors (Section V) : budget of EUR 77.443.289, a decrease of 8,6%; - Economic and Social Committee (Section VI) : budget EUR 81.649.960 an increase of 4,22%; - Committee of the Regions (Section VII) : budget of EUR 39.101.436 an increase of 7,41%; - European Ombudsman (Section VIII) : budget of EUR 4.248.648 an increase of 8,6%.�