Amending budget 5/2005: revision of the forecast of own resources, surplus from the Guarantee Fund and mobilisation of the Solidarity Fund for Slovakia

To recall, on 7 June 2005, the Commission submitted to the Council Preliminary Draft Amending Budget (PDAB) No 5 for the financial year 2005 concerning the general statement of revenue and expenditure as well as the mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund for Slovakia.

The Commission's proposal may be summarised as follows:

1) Revenue:

a) repayment of the surplus of the Guarantee Fund for external measures in accordance with Article 7 of Decision 2000/597/EC (EUR 187 130 000), and an additional amount as a result of the repayment stipulated in Article 1 point 2 of the Council Regulation nº2273/04 (EUR 338 831 402),therefore the total amount budgeted is EUR 525 961 402;

b) slight revision of revenue of agricultural duties and sugar levies amounting to EUR 819 400 000 and EUR 793 800 000 respectively, upward revision of revenue from customs duties amounting to EUR 12 030 800 000 and updating of VAT (uncapped) and GNP bases, which amount to EUR 5 083 569,6 million and EUR 10 568 696,6 million respectively relative to the estimates entered in the 2005 budget;

c) revision of the correction of budgetary imbalances following final calculation of the correction for the financial years 2001 and 2004. The 2001 and  2004 corrections are both subject to the rules of the new Council Decision on the system of the European Communities' own resources (2000/597/EC, Euratom) and its accompanying working document ("The Calculation Method").

The first update of the correction of budgetary imbalances for 2004 is EUR 70,5 million higher compared to the provisional amount for the 2004 correction entered in the 2005 budget, EUR 5 185 683 679. Nevertheless the definitive amount of the 2001 correction of budgetary imbalances for 2001 is EUR 130,7 million lower compared with the first update of the 2001 correction entered in the SAB 3/2002;

d) the calculation and financing of the 2004 corrections are entered in Chapter 15 and the result of the definitive calculation of the financing 2001 correction in Chapter 35.

2) Expenditure:

a) the mobilisation of EUR 5 667 578 in commitment appropriations in the European Union Solidarity Fund budget lines, relating to a wind storm that struck Slovakia on 19-20 November 2004.

A trialogue meeting provided for by the Interinstitutional Agreement of 7 November 2002 on the funding of the European Union Solidarity Fund was held on 11 July 2005.

Following conciliation with the European Parliament delegation on 15 July 2005 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 Amending Budget at a single reading, to accept Draft Amending Budget No. 5/2005 as proposed by the Commission.