Financial perspective 2000-2006: adjustment to take account of implementation

The committee adopted the report by Joan COLOM i NAVAL (PES, E) calling for the unused commitment appropriations for structural operations under the 2000 budget to be rebudgeted as of 2003, with most of the funds being allocated to the years 2004 and 2005. The Commission had envisaged rebudgeting the funds in roughly equal instalments, beginning in 2002. The committee argued that this might not fit in with the implementation capacity of the Member States and their expenditure profiles. Because of the new "N+2" rule for the structural funds (i.e. the appropriations must be implemented in the two years following rebudgetisation in year "N"), some beneficiary states might have an interest in "backloading" the appropriations onto later years in order to avoid the risk of not being able to implement them in time and thereby losing them.