2003 budget: section III, Commission

PURPOSE : to present the letter of amendment No 2 to the draft general budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2003 established by the Council. CONTENT : on 31 October 2002 the Commission forwarded to the Council letter of amendment No 3 to the preliminary draft general budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2003. The letter of amendment concerns expenditure and revenue and comprises the following : - Expenditure : the Commission has made a new estimate of agricultural expenditure and expenditure relating the fisheries agreements as compared with the preliminary draft budget. 1) agricultural expenditure : an established overall saving of EUR 337,4 million as regards the market organisations (sub-heading 1a) is therefore proposed in relation to the preliminary draft budget. With regard to expenditure relating to rural development (sub-heading 1b), the Commission is proposing a new allocation of the amount entered in the preliminary draft budget among the various headings, while respecting the overall ceiling. Lastly, the letter of amendment contains some amendments to the nomenclature. 2) expenditure relating to fisheries agreements: the transfer of reserve B0-40 (Item B0-4011, point 1 of the remarks) to operational heading B7-8000 (International fisheries agreements) of EUR 30 097 million in c/a and p/a, following renewal of the Agreements with Angola, Senegal and Sao Tomé and Principe. - Revenue: the estimated provisional surplus for the financial year 2002, in accordance with the wish voiced by the Council when drawing up the draft budget for the financial year 2003, on 22 July 2002. The Commission is proposing to enter under the provisional available surplus for the previous financial year a balance of EUR 500 million resulting from estimated under-implementation in the 2002 budget. Following conciliation with the Parliament delegation on 25 November 2002, prior to the meeting of the Budget Council, the Council, in the framework of an overall agreement with the European Parliament and the Commission, established letter of amendment No 2 to be adopted at a single reading, as follows: 1) under heading 1 of the financial perspective, letter of amendment No 3 to the preliminary draft budget for the financial year 2003 is accepted as presented by the Commission. The creation of heading B1-2101 (Refunds on live animals) is accepted in the interests of budget transparency, in accordance with the principle of budget accuracy. This amendment to the nomenclature affects neither the amount of the appropriation, nor the content of the measure. 2) under heading 4 of the financial perspective, letter of amendment No 3 to the preliminary draft budget is accepted as proposed by the Commission, with the following exceptions: - the appropriations entered in reserve B0-40, heading B7-8000 (International fisheries agreements) have been reduced by EUR 1.5 million in c/a and p/a; - the appropriations entered under heading B7-200 (Products mobilised under the Food Aid Convention) have been reduced by EUR 27,5 million in c/a; - the appropriations entered under heading B7-210 (Aid, includingemergency food aid, to help the populations of the developing countries and other third countries hit by disasters or serious crises) have been reduced by EUR 27,5 million in c/a and p/a. 3) as regards revenue, there is a change to letter of amendment No 3 to the preliminary draft budget: an estimated balance of EUR 1.000 million has been entered under Article 300 as surplus available from the previous financial year.�