A4-0390/97

Resolution on the draft budget of the European Union for the financial year 1998 as modified by the Council (all sections) and on Letter of Amendment No 1/98 to the preliminary draft budget for 1998, Section III - Commission

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Treaty on European Union,

- having regard to Letter of Amendment No 1 to the preliminary draft budget for 1998, Section III - Commission, established by the Commission on 29 October 1997 (SEC(97)1954) and to the draft budget (C4-0645/97),

- having regard to the Council decisions of 27 November 1997 on the draft budget for 1998 as amended and modified by Parliament at first reading (C4-0600/97), which include Letter of Amendment No 1,

- having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure ((OJ C 331, 7.12.1993, p. 1.)) and the financial perspective attached thereto, as last revised and adjusted on 24 April 1997 ((OJ C 150, 19.5.1997, p. 23.)),

- having regard to its resolutions of 13 March 1997 on the guidelines for the 1998 budget ((OJ C 115, 14.4.1997, p. 178 and p. 183.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 17 July 1997 on the ad hoc procedure for the 1998 budget, as provided for in Annex II on interinstitutional collaboration in the budgetary sector to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure ((OJ C 286, 22.9.1997, p. 189.)),

- having regard to the Financial Regulation, and in particular Articles 15 and 26 thereof, and the deliberations of the competent committees on transfers permitted by those articles,

- having regard to the report of the Court of Auditors on the financial year 1996 ((OJ C 348, 18.11.1997.)),

- having regard to its deliberations and amendments adopted at first reading and its resolutions of 23 October 1997 on the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 1998 (Sections I, II, III, IV, V and VI) ((Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 1(d) and (e).)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets and the opinion of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (A4-0390/97),

A. whereas Parliament has decided to adopt the 1998 budget at ECU 91 012.988 million in commitment appropriations and ECU 83 529.167 million in payment appropriations, which represents an increase of 2.1% in commitment appropriations and 1.4% in payment appropriations over 1997,

B. whereas the Council's draft budget of 27 November 1997 has reduced commitments by ECU 246.098 milion and increased payments by ECU 579.847 million over its first reading; whereas reductions of ECU 550 million in agricultural appropriations and ECU 550 million in reductions in payments in categories 3 and 4 were agreed on the basis of Parliament's first reading; whereas early budgetization of ECU 100 million in balances from 1997 was also agreed; whereas the Council's draft budget remains at 1.14% of GNP in terms of expenditure but 1.126% in terms of revenue needed, while the actual own resources ceiling is 1.26% of GNP,

C. whereas the draft budget was established with regard for the new employment initiative of the European Union and the employment measures of the Member States, as well as the budgetary rigour called for by the Member States, in order to enable them to better adapt to the convergence criteria leading to economic and monetary union as of 1999,

General approach

1. Approves the budget decisions to provide adequate funding for the major priorities designated by Parliament and by Council at their first readings while respecting budgetary rigour:

- initiating the three-year employment initiative, called for by Parliament, and agreed at the special European Council at Luxembourg on 21 November 1997;

- ensuring tight budget targets in view of the need to respect the criteria for economic and monetary union and the single currency, by agreeing reductions of payment appropriations below Parliament's first reading;

- continuing funding of the programme for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland;

- strengthening the Socrates programme for educational cooperation;

- identifying and consolidating pre-accession measures;

- bringing together and reinforcing measures to promote human rights and democracy;

- introducing a new approach for EU subsidies with more transparent criteria;

2. Notes that the European Council in Luxembourg, having heard the President of Parliament, welcomed Parliament's initiative providing for the strengthening of budgetary resources earmarked for employment, a move given a positive reception by the Council; formalizes the agreement with the Council by adopting the necessary budgetary decision; expects the Commission to make proposals, as soon as possible, for necessary legal bases for the initiative providing for new financial instruments to support innovatory and job-creating small and medium-sized enterprises, including craft enterprises, in accordance with the conclusions of the third European Conference of crafts and small businesses 'Employment through Innovation¨, so that the Council can adopt them speedily ((Paragraphs 47 and 48 of the Presidency's conclusions, which state: 'These new instruments must reinforce the European Technology Facility, financed by the European Investment Bank and administered by the European Investment Fund, byopening a 'risk capital window¨, support the creation of transnational joint ventures and establish within the European Investment Fund a special guarantee fund to facilitate risk-taking by institutions providing finance for small and medium-sized enterprises. The European Council invites the Commission to submit examples of good practice concerning the functioning of these measures, based on Member States' experience.¨));

3. Notes that the Commission will introduce in due course a preliminary draft supplementary and amending budget if payments, and in the case of category 1 commitment appropriations as well, appear to be insufficient and that the budgetary authority will examine this PDSAB favourably; notes that this may arise because of the Council reductions in commitment and payment appropriations of ECU 550 million in category 1 and payment appropriations of ECU 550 million in categories 3 and 4, which is endorsed by Parliament on this clear condition; urges the Commission to ensure that the 1998 budget is fully implemented in accordance with Article 205 of the EC Treaty and to take appropriate account of these budget decisions in its 1998 legislative programme;

4. In order to monitor the payments, requests the Commission to present the evolution of payments for each budget line on a monthly basis, together with a forecast of budget implementation to be presented to the budgetary authority before the conciliation meeting in July 1998;

5. Is of the opinion that its decisions on the 1998 budget have followed the guidelines expressed in its above-mentioned resolution of 13 March 1997, and, as far as possible, have taken account of the Council and Commission guidelines;

6. Expects the informal conciliation with Council early in 1998 to encourage the setting of realistic joint budget targets, help prepare an open and cooperative posture by both arms of the budgetary authority, and address the longer-term financing issues that will arise from the processes of economic and monetary union and of enlargement;

7. Welcomes Letter of Amendment No 1/98, which responds to Parliament's requests in the agricultural sector, following the agreement at the trialogue of 8 April 1997; calls for agreement between Parliament, Council and Commission on continuing the procedure on agricultural expenditure successfully followed this year, after a trialogue to be held no later than March 1998;

8. Urges the Member States to re-examine and improve the collection of revenue contributing to the Union's budget, in accordance with the recent recommendations by the Court of Auditors, and with the conclusions of the Committee of Inquiry into the Community transit system, so as to avoid the high wastage that currently occurs, and to enable the budgetary authority to meet needs better without making excessive demands on the fourth resource;

9. Is aware that, in this final programming period, ensuring the full implementation, monitoring and assessment of Community support frameworks and single programming documents for the programmes and projects under the Structural Funds, Community support frameworks, the Community initiatives and the Cohesion Fund will be a priority for Parliament and asks the Commission to present detailed information on job creation initiatives in Objective 2 areas and the real expectations for the next two years;

10. Welcomes the agreement reached by the two arms of the budgetary authority to allocate supplementary funding of ECU 70 million for the Socrates programme in 1998 and 1999, currently being examined under the codecision procedure; expects this to speed up successful conclusion of the legislative conciliation procedure before the end of December 1997; remarks that the budgetary authority has thus reduced the risk of further delays in the legislation harming the full implementation of this popular programme;

11. Notes that, after the meeting between the representatives of the institutions at the highest level a sustainable strategy for a common information policy aimed at better informing the European citizen should be set out before 31 March 1998; requests that a Commission two-part strategy paper be submitted to Parliament and to Council on the future of JET, the first by 31 March 1998, addressing the detailed administrative and budgetary issues, and the second before 1 May 1998, in the form of an evaluation study of the various elements of the future programme, including JET, drawn up by independent experts;

12. Approves the decision to place against the corresponding heading the funding for the controlled nuclear fusion programme, except ECU 3. 6 million in the reserve pending a possible settlement of the staff dispute at the JET; agrees to the transfer of 25 JET Euratom posts to the fusion programme and to the maintenance of the reserve list of candidates, due to lapse at the end of 1997, until the end of 1999; requests the Commission to forward as soon as possible its proposals to modify the JET statutes in the terms required by the Court of First Instance's judgement of 12 December 1996, and to take additional measures in the area of staff policy and recruitment, in order to fulfil the obligations resulting from joined Cases T-177/94 and T-377/94;

13. Is concerned about the reported implementation difficulties concerning EU funding for actions which correspond to the stated priorities in Bosnia- Herzegovina, in particular the return of refugees; confirms its first- reading decision to leave 30 % of the appropriations in the reserve for reconstruction activities; invites its competent authorities to examine rapidly and favourably the sending in early 1998 of a four Member ad hoc delegation from the competent organs, including the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Budgetary Control, to evaluate on the ground the financial and administrative problems concerning this aid with the authorities in the area;

14. Welcomes the outline agreement on the funding allocation to the EBRD for the Union contribution to the Chernobyl Shelter Plan, approving the Council's decision to enter ECU 25 million for Article B7-536 in the reserve and confirming that the appropriations will be released once the legal basis is adopted, after the verification of specific conditions linked to the technical implementation of the plan and to payments to the fund by other donors; adds to the remarks of Article B7-520 a comment permitting appropriations up to a maximum amount of ECU 25 million to be used to cover the expenditure referred to in Article B7-536 through transfer; underlines that the total amount to be allocated to this action shall not exceed ECU 100 million over the eight-year period of the programme and that the nuclear safety sector under the Tacis programme shall not exceed 13% of the total appropriations in 1998;

15. Expects budget management to be improved by the prompt application, by the Commission and by the Member State administrations, of the recommendations adopted under the SEM 2000 programme and, as far as the staff of the institution is concerned, those of the MAP 2000 programme;

Reserves

16. Decides to place appropriations in the reserve in respect of 23 lines, so as to supervise closely the implementation of these lines during the 1998 financial year (see Annex I); refers to the conditions for their release as indicated in the amendments it has adopted; agrees to release the appropriations once the conditions it has set have been fulfilled;

17. Repeats its call to the Commission to submit all transfers of appropriations entered in Chapter B0-40 for specific lines, as far as possible before 15 September 1998; calls on the Commission to notify the budgetary authority in full no later than 10 days prior to the latter's deliberations thereon; points out that such proposals for transfers must be submitted separately from the Notenboom-Bourlanges global transfer, the procedure for which must be revised and which might, for example, be replaced by a supplementary and amending budget proposed in the last four months of the year;

18. Commits itself to evaluating interinstitutional cooperation, and to encouraging it in identified priority areas so as to achieve the synergy and savings that have been forecast;

19. Commits itself to watching closely the implementation of the new system for subsidies from the Union budget (Part A of the budget) and insists that internal procedures be improved so as to avoid duplication of subsidy from the two parts of the budget;

Other institutions' budgets

20. Notes that, apart from the amendments made by Parliament to its own budget and to that of the Ombudsman, the Council has, for the first time, endorsed Parliament's first reading of the draft budget (other institutions) without amendment;

21. Welcomes that outcome, which it regards as consent to a common reading of the institutions' administrative expenditure;

22. Is of the opinion that a single reading ought to give the institutions concerned greater leeway, in terms of time, and therefore invites them to take this opportunity to improve their budget implementation plan;

23. Points out in this connection that it has placed appropriations in the reserve and that, during this budgetary procedure, it has asked for reports to be drawn up on questions listed, together with the deadlines and conditions for submission, in Annex II;

24. Deplores the fact, however, that the Council has rejected the amendments seeking to enter appropriate remarks for each revenue heading in accordance with the provisions of Article 20(2) of the Financial Regulation;

25. Has therefore decided to retable the revenue-related amendments;

26. Instructs its administration to bring forward the appropriate transfer for the twelfth part- session in Strasbourg; stresses that the transfer should take due account of the provisions adopted by the Conference of Presidents on 23 October 1997 on the holding of committee meetings in Strasbourg; notes that possible savings due to reductions in committee meetings in Strasbourg following these decisions could amount to about ECU 4 million over the year;

27. Stresses its attachment to a transparent and efficient nomenclature permitting comparability between institutions, in particular in the case of administrative expenditure;

28. Invites the Commission, accordingly, to coordinate work on harmonization of the nomenclature for Title 2 - Buildings, equipment and miscellaneous operating expenditure - and to submit an interinstitutional report before 30 April 1998;

Margins

29. Notes that the margins left available for a possible supplementary and amending budget are ECU 2 898 million in heading 1, ECU 247 million in heading 3, ECU 470 million in heading 4 and ECU 188 million in heading 5;

Final provisions

30. Instructs its President to designate the budgetary act as the budget of the European Union;

31. Instructs its President to forward these budgetary decisions to the Council, the Commission and the institutions and advisory bodies concerned.

ANNEX I

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ANNEX II

List of the reports requested by Parliament during the budgetary procedure

and appropriations entered in the reserve

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