2002 budget: other sections

Before the first adoption of the conclusions relating to the Council's priorities for the 2002 budget, the ministers exchanged points of view on the principal budgetary orientations for 2002. During the debate led by the Council, the ministers insisted in particular on the absolute necessity of respecting the finanical perspectives and the inter-institutionnel agreement of 6 May 1999 on budgetary discipline and the improvement of the budgetary procedure. They also discussed a certain number of key questions concerning different issues (amongst others, the fight against the BSE crisis, involvement in the Balkans, the cost of structural reforms and innovation, etc.). As regards financial issues in particular, the Council is of the opinion that the following must be given special attention in the context of the preparation of the 2002 budget: - in relation to the financial consequences of the BSE crisis, the Council recalls that with respect to the conclusions of the European Council at Nice, the financial perspectives and the Council regulation on budgetary discipline must be respected in order to deal with the consequences of BSE; - the Council indicated that it plans to stay within the limits of the reference amounts for the multi-annual programmes under heading 4; - it underlined the importance of the measures contained in the conclusions of the European Council in Lisbon; - before a proposal for a new programme or a new budgetary line is submitted to the budgetary authority, the pilot projects and the preparatory actions must be subject to a report containing an evaluation of results which conforms to the inter-institutional agreement; - concerned by the small margin of manoeuvre possible under heading 5, the Council stressed that the draft budget must leave a sufficient margin for the requirements of all the institutions and that the possibilities of re-deployment must be exhausted before the presentation of additional requirements.�