Expiry of the ECSC Treaty: financial activities

Jean-Antoine Giansily (F, UFE) will be reporting for the budgets committee on the Commission communication on the financial issues raised by the expiry of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Treaty in 2002. The expiry of the ECSC will leave immediate cash resources in the form of provisions and future resources in the form of reserves which can be released on varying dates. It is proposed that the assets and liabilities of the ECSC should be managed by the Commission after 2002, with Parliament playing a role as the budgetary authority. All net revenue arising from ECSC assets would constitute earmarked revenue in the general EU budget and would be used to finance research in sectors related to the coal and steel industries and thus be a logical continuation of ECSC-financed programmes····Mr Giansily is broadly in agreement with the Commission proposals as he still sees a need for assistance from the EU budget to areas that were formerly dependent on coal and steel industry. He points out the need to involve the applicant countries in the research programmes, as some have large coal industries and he notes that the next stage will involve drawing up the detailed arrangements for implementing this transition process.�