ARCHIVES HISTORIQUES 
DE LA COMMISSION 
 
 
 
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DOCUMENTS "COM" 
 
 
 
 
COM (84) 411 
 
 
 
Vol. 1984/0 176 
  
 
Disclaimer  
Conformém ent au règlement (CEE, Euratom) n° 354/83 du Conseil du 1er février 1983 
concernant l'ouverture au public des archives historiques de la Communauté économique 
européenne et de la Communauté européenne de l'énergie atomique (JO L 43 du 15.2.1983, 
p. 1), tel que modifié par le règlement (CE, Euratom) n° 1700/2003 du 22 septembre 2003 
(JO L 243 du 27.9.2003, p. 1), ce dossier est ouvert au public. Le cas échéant, les documents 
classifiés présents dans ce dossier ont été déclassifiés conformément à l'article 5 dudit 
règlem ent. 
In accordance with Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 354/83 of 1 February 1983 
concerning the opening to the public of the historical archives of the European Econom ic 
Communit y and the European Atom ic Energy Communit y (OJ L 43, 15.2.1983, p. 1), as 
amended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1700/2003 of 22 September 2003 (OJ L 243, 
27.9.2003, p. 1), t his file is open to the public. Where necessary, classified documents in this 
file have been declassified in conformity with Article 5 of the aforementioned regulation.  
In Übereinstimmung mit der Verordnung (EWG, Euratom) Nr. 354/83 des Rates vom  1. 
Februa r 1983 über die Freigabe der historischen Archive der Europäischen  
Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft und der Europäischen Atomgem einschaft (ABI. L 43 vom  15.2.1983,  
S. 1), geändert durch die Verordnung (EG, Euratom) Nr. 1700/2003 vom 22. Septem ber 2003  
(ABI. L 243 v om 27.9.2003, S. 1), ist diese Datei der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich. Soweit  
erforderlich, wurden die Verschlusssachen in dieser Datei in Übereinstimmung mit Artikel 5  
der genannten Verordnung freigegeben.  
C O M (84) 411 fin a l
B russels, 12th July 1984
BU DG ETARY REQUIREM ENTS O F  TH E CO M M U N ITY IN 1984 A N D  1985
(C om m unication from  the Com m ission to t he Council)
C O M (84) 411 fin a lCOMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

BUDGETARY REQUIREMENTS OF THE COMMUNITY IN 1984 AND 1985.
(Communication from the Commission to the Council)
I- In the light of the meeting of the Budget Council due to
be held on 19 July, the Commission thinks it right to draw formally 
to the attention of the Council the following considerations concerning 
the budgetary requirements of the Community in 1984 and 1985 and 
the particular responsibilities of the Council in this respect.
2. The Commission's starting point is that there exists a
legal obligation upon the Budget Authority to provide adequate resources 
to maintain the normal functioning of the full range of the Community's 
policies. There exists also a specific political obligation upon 
the Council to take the dispositions necessary to this end: the Heads 
of State and Government at their meeting at Fontainebleau on 25/26 
June confirmed their acceptance of this political responsibility.
3. For its part, the Commission has presented to the Budget 
Authority and to the Council proposals in respect of the budgetary 
instrument and the formal legislative decision, both of which will 
be required if the Council is to fulfill its obligations.
1984 Supplementary and Rectifying Budget:
4. As regards 1984, the normal functioning of the Community's 
policies implies the discharge by the Community of all its obligations 
to potential beneficiaries under the Community budget, in both the 
agricultural and non-agricultural fields, according to the current 
provisions of the relevant regulations agreed by the Council. In
the majority of areas these regulations have themselves been the 
subject of recent and detailed review; and the Council took decisions 
concerning them in full awareness of the anticipated budgetary consequen­
ces .
5. This is notably the case as regards the requirements of
EAGGF Guarantee expenditure in 1984. The decisions which the Council 
took on 31 March in response to the Commission's proposals for a 
reform and updating of the Common Agricultural Policy were reached 
after long and difficult discussion and on the basis of a full provision 
of information by the Commission on their financial incidence. On 
17 April, in the light of those decisions, the Commission presented 
a legislative proposal concerning the budgetary requirements of the 
Community in 1984 which set out in detail the additional requirements 
in respect of EAGGF Guarantee which would arise as a result of the 
Council's decisions and of conjunctural factors.

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6. These requirements have subsequently been the object of
a detailed and critical study by both the agricultural and budgetary 
experts of the Member States, who have not contested, other than 
in certain relatively minor respects, the justification of the Commis­
sion's assumptions and figures. In its preliminary draft supplementary 
and rectifying budget presented on 6 July, the Commission revised 
its figures in the one respect in which developments since April 
justified such a revision, namely in regard to the $/ECU exchange 
rate. But the resultant figure of 1983 MioECU for EAGGF Guarantee 
is one which on the basis of the current agricultural regulations 
and the sound management of the Common Agricultural Policy cannot 
be significantly compressed. The Commission emphasises that expenditure 
incurred as a result of the operation of the EAGGF in the course 
of a budgetary excercise must, in the spirit of the Community's legisla­
tion, be financed by revenues accruing during that exercise. To seek 
to avoid this by means of artificial postponements of expenditure 
into a following year whose budgetary problems are already acute 
would mean a breach of the existing agricultural regulations, a discrimi­
nation between both individual operators and individual Member States 
and the introduction of an element of national financing into the 
Common Agricultural Policy at a time when a major reform of the policy 
is under way. The Council has an obligation not to impose an upheaval 
of such a kind.
7. Similarly, the Council cannot, if it is to respect in full
all its obligations under the Treaty, advocate an upheaval of those 
policies which are financed by non-obligatory expenditure. The transfer 
of a major volume of non-obligatory credits to EAGGF Guarantee would 
mean a decimation of the Community's structural and sectoral policies, 
including those to which the Council itself has recently accorded 
new emphasis and impetus and an erosion of the balance of the budget.
The Commission will not under any circumstances propose transfers 
of expenditure which would have this effect: even were it to do so, 
the Parliament has already indicated in forthright terms its opposition. 
The Council cannot expect - nor is it entitled - to impose unilaterally 
a decision of this kind.
8. The Council also has an obligation in respect of the antici­
pated shortfall of the Community's traditional own resources, notably 
agricultural levies, in 1984. The Commission has indicated its prepared­
ness, by means of a more rigorous management of the budget to achieve 
economies which will offset a significant part of the shortfall involved. 
The Commission will use its utmost endeavours to maximise such management 
economies. But their scope is inevitably limited, given the constraints 
of the Community's financial regulations, the need not to prejudice 
the continuity of the actions involved and the Commission's obligation 
to execute the budget as adopted by the Budget Authority.

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1985 Budget:
9- For 1985 similar considerations concerning the normal function­
ing of the full range of the Community's policies, both agricultural 
i and non-agricultural,  apply. The proposals which the Commission has
presented in its preliminary draft budget for 1985 are based on the 
continued operation of the Common Agricultural Policy on the basis 
t of the decisions taken by the Council on 31 March, and on a prudent
development of the Community's policies in the sectoral and structural 
fields as confirmed by the European Council.
10. As regards non-obligatory expenditure, the appropriations 
which the Commission has requested reflect commitments w'hich the 
Council itself has already undertaken. In any event, the rights of 
the Parliament under Article 203 of the Treaty impose an irreducible 
minimum level of potential expenditure in this field which the Council 
cannot pre-empt without provoking a major crisis between the institutions 
of the Community. The Council must therefore, in establishing its
draft budget and the accompanying legal dispositions for 1985, leave 
adequate room for Parliament fully to exercise its margin.
11. As regards agricultural expenditure, the appropriations 
which the Commission has requested will be required in full if the 
Community is to discharge its obligations under the current agricultural 
regulations. Unless there is a clear and specific legal assurance
at the beginning of the budgetary exercise of the full availability 
of these resources, the Commission will not be in a position to incur 
on the Community's behalf the obligations vis-a-vis individual producers 
and operators which the Common Agricultural Policy imposes.
12. Nor will it be possible, unless a new own resources decision 
comes into effect in 1985, for the commitment agreed at Fontainebleau 
in respect of the United Kingdom's budgetary situation in 1984 to
be discharged through the 1985 budget.
13. For all these reasons, the Commission has proposed as the 
simplest, most efficient and most equitable means of ensuring the 
continuity of the Community's policies and the discharge of its commit­
ments that the new decision on own resources should come into effect
in the course of 1985 in such a fashion as to be applicable to the 
budgetary exercise of that year.
14. The Commission therefore urges the Council to take at its 
meeting in its Budget formation on 19 July decisions, on the basis 
of both the budgetary and legislative proposals which the Commission 
has presented.
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