2003 budget: section III, Commission

PURPOSE : to present the amending letter No 1 to the preliminary draft budget 2003 - Section III Commission. CONTENT : Article 14 of the Financial Regulation provides that the Commission can present an amending letter to the PDB on the basis of new elements which were not known at the time of the drafting the preliminary budget. Even if the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy was already announced in Volume 0 of the PDB, the proposal on the legal basis was still under examination within the Commission. This proposal aims to present the amending letter No 1 to the preliminary draft budget 2003, which covers one single element: i.e. to create the own budgetary structure to accompany the proposal for the legal basis of the reform of the CFP, through a separate proposal (please refer to ACI/2002/0157), the flexibility instrument for financing the proposed measures. CONTEXT : according to Commission proposals of 28 May 2002 for reform of the Common European Fisheries Policy to safeguard the future of this sector and in particular the Community emergency measure for the scrapping of fishing vessels for 2003, a reduction in the fishing capacity by means of scrapping of vessels is required. The Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance will therefore be reprogrammed and it is necessary to provide for a supplementary measure for an amount of EUR 32 million for 2003 to accompany and encourage these measures. These actions falls under heading 2 "structural measures", sub-heading "Structural Funds" of the financial perspectives. In accordance with point 12, paragraph 2 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure, the appropriations foreseen for actions covered by the heading 2 "structural measures" of the financial perspectives do not leave any margin under the ceiling. Consequently, it is necessary to use the flexibility instrument to cover these expenditure. This text proposes that EUR 32 million be used for the financing of supplementary measures for the demolition of the fishing vessels in the framework of the reform of the common fisheries policy, to be covered by a new budget line B2-201, which is to be created by a letter of amendment in the 2003 budget.�