Supplementary and amending budget 5/2001: section I Parliament

AIM: Presentation of the preliminary draft supplementary and amending budget No 5 for 2001 - European Parliament section. CONTENT: The Commission is to present the Council with a fifth preliminary draft supplementary and amending budget for 2001 relating to section I (Parliament); the draft deals only with loans relating to Parliament's investments in immovable property. With a view to minimising the financial burden arising from the parliamentary land and buildings policy, the European Parliament has been making advance payments over the past ten years to cover the cost of its various official buildings. In accordance with this approach, Parliament would like to continue making these advance payments in 2002 with a view to reducing the burden of buildings expenditure on its future budgets, especially as regards repayment of the cost of the Louise Weiss building in Strasbourg. The Commission believes in this instance that the advance payment of EUR 10m would generate a saving on interest payments of about EUR 1.8m over ten years. The Commission therefore asks that appropriations totalling EUR 24 800 000 be made available in the 2001 budget for accelerated funding of the Parliament building. �