2002 budget: section III, Commission

In adopting the report presenting by Carlos COSTA NEVES (EPP-ED, P), Parliament voted 440 votes to 6 with 8 abstentions in favour of a resolution setting out priorities for next year's budget (please refer to previous document). MEPs were concerned that extra funds required to pay for the consequences of the BSE crisis will lead to pressures on next year's budget. Parliament is giving its backing to the new European Food Safety Authority and believes that the BSE crisis should prompt the EU and its Member States to go further in reforming the CAP, in light of both the forthcoming round of WTO negotiations and the implications for agriculture of enlargement. Other points taken up in the resolution include paying for reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy, illegal immigration, aid to the Balkans, the Mediterranean Strategy and the budgetary implications of a Foreign and Defence Policy where MEPs take the view that insufficient attention has been paid to the budgetary aspects and are anxious to see an international approach to dismantling weapons of mass destruction. �