Fishing agreements: budget

In a joint declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission on improving information for the budgetary authority on fisheries agreements, the institutions undertook to create two budgetary headings for: 1) international fisheries agreements (B7-8000) to cover all sums relating to agreements and protocols in force at the beginning of the 1997 financial year; 2) participation in international organizations (B7-8001). The institutions also stated that, during the next ad hoc consultation procedure, Parliament and the Council would jointly agree on the amount to be entered under the appropriate budgetary headings and in the reserve (B0-40), on the basis of the Commission's proposals. The European Commission undertook to provide the European Parliament with regular reports on the preparation of and progress in negotiations on fisheries agreements (including budgetary implications). In addition, Parliament, the Council and the Commission would need to make every effort during the legislative process relating to fisheries agreements to ensure that formalities were completed as quickly as possible. If the appropriations for fisheries agreements proved to be insufficient, the Commission would provide the budgetary authority with information which would allow an exchange of views, in the form of a trilogue (simplified if necessary), on the causes of the situation and on possible measures to be adopted in accordance with the established procedures, whereby the Commission would be called upon to take any appropriate measures. Finally, the declaration stipulated that the Commission must present the budgetary authority every quarter with detailed reports on the implementation of current agreements and financial forecasts for the rest of the year.�