Amending budget 5/2003: section III Commission, natural disasters

On 30 July 2003, the Commission sent the Council preliminary draft amending budget No 5/2003 in order to include in the budget the mobilisation of a total of EUR 56,250 million in commitment appropriations in the European Union Solidarity Fund, to allocate an amount of EUR 8,626 million to Spain (Prestige oil spill) and an amount of EUR 47,624 million to Italy (earthquake in the regions of Molise and Apulia and the eruption of Mount Etna). On 26 September 2003, the Commission sent the Council preliminary draft amending budget No 6/2003 to include in the budget the mobilisation of a total of EUR 48,539 million in commitment appropriations in the European Union Solidarity Fund to be allocated to Portugal following the forest fires. At the trialogue meeting provided for by the Interinstitutional Agreement of 7 November 2002 on the funding of the European Union Solidarity Fund, held on 23 September 2003, agreement was reached on the amounts mentioned in points 1 and 2 above and on the principle of a single amending budget No 5/2003 incorporating the preliminary draft amending budgets Nos 5 and 6 to the 2003 budget presented by the Commission. On 7 October 2003 the Council established draft amending budget No 5 for the financial year 2003, entering a total amount of EUR 104,789 in commitment appropriations in the European Union Solidarity Fund (Title B2-4). Furthermore, in order to allow it to carry out a detailed examination of the implementation of the European Union Solidarity Fund, the Council invites the Commission departments to submit, between now and the end of 2003, an evaluation of the application of the eligibility criteria for the Fund and the methodology used to establish the amount to be mobilised, also taking account of the urgent nature of the Solidarity Fund. Following draft amending budget No 5 for the financial year 2003, total commitment appropriations amount to EUR 99.790.481.338, with payment appropriations remaining unchanged.�