Supplementary and amending budget 1/1996

OBJECTIVE: the reasons for presenting this draft supplementary and amending budget are twofold:; - the need to finance the consequences of the decisions in respect of BSE, and its impact on the beefmeat market; - the entry into force of the decision on the European Communities' own resources of 31 October 1994, which had been deferred because of the delay by the Netherlands in ratifying it. SUBSTANCE: Preliminary draft supplementary and amending budget No 1/1996 takes note of the savings made in the agricultural sector and provides for the financing of expenditure for the beefmeat sector resulting from BSE. In view of the rise in world prices, which reduces the level of export refunds, and the savings made on several agricultural lines (plant products, accompanying measures, milk and milk products), the Commission proposes entering in the preliminary draft amending budget for 1996, ECU 1 278 m to finance measures to eradicate the disease, to intervene on the markets and to compensate for the loss of income suffered by the producers. In addition, the preliminary draft presented by the Commission: - proposes deducting from the British contribution the expenditure resulting from the Social Protocol. The Commission thus envisages a mechanism for restoring to the United Kingdom its share in the expenditure incurred as a result of the Community activities based on the Social Protocol, i.e. ECU 4008; - proposes reviewing the budgetary lines on the administrative expenditure of the Council and Parliament including the additional financing for Parliament's building projects; - proposes important modifications in respect of revenue. The preliminary draft budget takes account of the entry into force of the decision on own-resources of 31 October 1994, by reassessing the contributions of the Member States, though without altering the overall ceiling on expenditure. A proposal is also made to 'budgetize' the 1995 balance totalling ECU 9 0002 bn, which would be refunded to the Member States. �