2001 Budget: section III

On 4 September 2000, the Commission transmitted to the Council a letter of amendment No 1/2001 to the 2001 draft general budget, section III - Commission. The Commission aims to take into account elements relating both to expenditure and revenue. This amending letter results from concerns within the Commission regarding the capacity of its human resources to carry out its activities. These resulted in its demand for 400 additional posts in 2001 and additional operational credits amounting to EUR 44,25 million. On 11 October, the Council decided to establish a letter of amendment with the aim of ensuring the appropriate means would be available to allow the Commission to: - put in place its reform as quickly as possible; - allow the implementation of the dismantling of the technical assistance offices (TAOs/BATs); - keep a sufficient margin under the ceiling of Heading 5 of the financial perspective in 2001 to be able to deal with any eventual new priorities on the part of the other institutions. The long-term forecasts presented by the Commission, in fact, reveal a margin which ranges from EUR 74 million in 2000 to EUR 26 million in 2002 and EUR 22 million in 2003. On the basis of this approach, the Council agreed, with qualified majority, a decision on the proposal to create 400 new posts for the 2001 financial year in order to respond to the Commission's request (360 at its headquarters and 40 in the delegations), as well as the amendments to the commentaries on the BA budget lines by adding expenses relating to the 'infrastructures' in such a way as to enable the full implementation of the dismantling of the BATs. The estimated cost of these amendments is EUR 34,253 million. �