2005 budget: section III, Commission

PURPOSE : to present the amending letter No 2 to the draft general budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2005 as established by the Council.

CONTENT : to recall, on 29 October 2004, the Commission forwarded to the Council Amending Letter No. 2 to the Preliminary Draft Budget for the financial year 2005.

This Amending Letter concerns expenditure and revenue under Section III - Commission - of the

- establishment of an Executive Agency for Education and Culture to implement programmes in that field. The Commission proposes a total amount of EUR 24 660 000 for the creation of the Agency by transferring the appropriations proposed in the PDB 2005 for Headings 3, 4 and 5 to the appropriate budget lines. The savings achieved, compared to the PDB 2005, amount to EUR 6 764 000 that include in particular the dismantling of three technical assistance offices and the withdrawal of the appropriations corresponding to the frozen posts;

- creation of an Executive Agency for the Public Health Programme (2003-2008), intended to support the Commission services in the implementation of the programme. The Commission proposes to transfer from the budget line reserved for the resources of administrative management allocated to the Public Health programme the amount of EUR 4 756 000 to budget line 17 01 04 30 of the Agency.

The saving achieved, compared to the PDB 2005, amounts to EUR 927 000 that include in particular the withdrawal of the appropriations corresponding to the frozen posts;

- establishment of a Supervisory Authority for the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to supervise the next phases of the European satellite radio-navigation programmes. For the establishment of the Supervisory Authority at the beginning of 2005 the Commission proposes a transfer of the amount of EUR 1 657 000 in a budgetary neutral way from the budget line of "Transport Safety" to the line 06 02 09;

Following conciliation with the Parliament delegation on 25 November 2004 prior to the Budget Council meeting, the Council decided, as part of an overall agreement with the European Parliament and the Commission involving adoption of the Letter at a single reading, to accept Amending Letter 2/2005 as proposed by the Commission, accompanied by a joint statement : "The Budgetary Authority invites the Commission to present each year, together with its PDB, an updated situation of those posts that cannot be occupied or have been redeployed as a result of the creation of Executive Agencies".