2005 budget: others sections

On 29 November 2004, after having deliberated with the Commission, the Council of the European Union carried out a second reading of the draft general budget of the European Communities for 2005.

In assessing the outcome of the Parliament's first reading of the Draft Budget for 2005, the Council was guided by the following principles:

- it ensured compliance with the annual expenditure ceilings set by the Financial Perspective;

- it adopted a limited and controlled growth of the volume of payment appropriations by maintaining the agreed level of payment appropriations of the Council first reading, taking into account in particular the level of surpluses of the past years and the constraints upon national budgets;

- it ensured compliance with the relevant provisions regarding the placing of appropriations in reserve, the classification of expenditure, legal bases, preparatory measures and pilot programmes

More specifically, as regards the 2005 budget of the other institutions , the Council adopted two joint statements concerning the reductions of administrative expenditure resulting from the adaptation of the salaries and pensions and on the management of the relevant posts, in particular on an updated situation of those posts that cannot be occupied or have been redeployed as a result of the creation of Executive Agencies.

On the whole, the Commission has maintained its first reading for the rest of the other budgetary sections of the Union's budget with the exception of the amendments concerning the European Parliament's budget which were all accepted in the framework of the "Gentlemen's Agreement).

It should be noted that the Council also accepted the Commission's amending letter No 2/2005 concerning the executive agencies.