2003 budget: section III, Commission

During the conciliation meeting, the Parliament and the Council reached overall agreement on the 2003 budget, particularly as regards appropriations for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP); The summary of the agreement reached during the conciliation meeting is as follows: The budgetary authority agrees: a) Heading 1 (Agriculture): - to accept Amending Letter No 3/2003 as submitted by the Commission; - to recall the declaration of the European Parliament and the Council on the recovery of beef and veal export refunds agreed on 21/22 November 2001 and to invite the Commission to take the conclusions of the requested report into account when preparing the PDB for 2004. b) Heading 2 (Structural operations): - to accept transfer No 51/2002 of EUR 14.991.760 in 2002 and to enter into the 2003 budget EUR 12.008.240 on the line B2-200; - to mobilise the flexibility instrument for an amount of EUR 12.008.240 in order to finance the restructuring of the Spanish and Portuguese fleets. c) Heading 3 (Internal Policies): - to accept the Parliament's proposal for a joint declaration on pilot projects. d) Heading 4 (External action): - to enter into the budget a total amount of EUR 47,5 million for CFSP securing the financing of the EU police mission in Bosnia-Herzogovina; - on a joint declaration on the financing of the CFSP; - to enter into the budget a total amount of EUR 42 million for the Global Health Fund; - to agree on a Joint Declaration on the Global Health Fund; - to accept the Amending Letter No 3/2003 concerning International Fisheries Agreements as amended by the Commission (reduction of the reserve of EUR 1,5 million); - to speed up implementation of aid for the Horn of Africa by using available means under the 2002 budget. This will reduce pressure on heading 4 of the 2003 budget by an amount of EUR 27,5 million on budget line B7-200 and by EUR 27,5 million on budget line B7-210 in the 2003 budget and the need for using the flexibility instrument in 2003. To this effect, the Parliament and the Council will agree to implement an urgent procedure for aid of up to EUR 55 million in the 2002 budget based on the necessary proposal from the Commission containing the appropriate justification for the needs. This agreement is conditional upon agreement on the point below; - if a situation arises that will necessitate the reinforcement of budget lines B7-200 and B7-210 in 2003, the budget authority will take the necessary action to reinforce these lines, using the most appropriate means available under the IIA, on a proposal from the Commission. e) Heading 5 (Administrative expenditure): - on the budgets of Section I (European Parliament) for an amount of EUR 1.086.644.375 and Section II (Council) for an amount of EUR 431.673.000 respecting the Gentlemen's Agreement; - the Council invites the Parliament to keep a total margin ofEUR 30 million under Heading 5 at the end of the 2003 budgetary procedure. f) Payment appropriations: - on a rate of growth of the overall payment appropriations of 1,9% based on the 2002 budget and SAB Nos 1 to 5/2002, at the end of 2003 budgetary procedure. g) Balance: - to enter an estimated provisional surplus for the financial year 2002 of EUR 1.000 million in the 2003 budget via Amending Letter No 3/2003. Finally, the Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed to a number of statements.�