1999 financial perspective: adjustment to take account of the conditions of implementation

OBJECTIVE: It is proposed to transfer to the 1999 budget year the unused appropriations from the previous years for the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund. SUBSTANCE: The Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 between Parliament, the Council and the Commission provides for the possibility of adjusting the financial perspectives to take account of the conditions of implementation. As 1999 is the last year of the current financial perspectives before the Community's next financial plan (Agenda 2000), the Commission has drawn up an account of the unused appropriations under the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund headings of the previous year's budgets. This account shows that a significant amount of the appropriations could not be used at the appropriate time, mainly because of an accumulated delay in the implementation of Structural Fund appropriations during the period 1994-1997. The unused appropriations in this list amount to ECU 1433 million for the Structural Funds heading and ECU 101 million for the Cohesion Fund heading. Pursuant to the 1993 Interinstitutional Agreement, the Commission now proposes to transfer these amounts to the 1999 budget. With regard to payment appropriations, the Commission does not propose to raise the current ceiling, as it considers that this ceiling should be sufficient to cover the needs and in this way it is complying with the need to pursue a strict budget policy. �