Budgetary discipline: amendments following the European Council of Edinburgh

The European Parliament amendments incorporated by the Commission in its amended proposal mainly seek to: - supplement the legal basis for the proposal by referring to Article 203; - clarify that maintaining the agricultural guideline at its basic and growth rates and extending its cover to all expenditure under the reformed CAP has been agreed by the institutions; - apply the same formula to the Guarantee Fund and reserves for humanitarian aid and loan guarantees; - clarify that any member of the Council rather than any Member State may call for the financial impact as the result of amending a proposal to be evaluated by the Commission and for Parliament to be informed of the results; - make provision for Parliament to be again consulted on the amendments made to the Commission's initial proposal where the Commission feels that the amendments in question are substantial from a budgetary point of view; - make provision, where the Commission needs to propose stronger stabilisation measures, for the European Parliament to give its opinion, to be returned within six weeks at most.�