Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Budget of the European Communities - Budgetary procedure - Obligation to carry over the budgetary surplus - Extent

(Council Decision of 24 June 1988, Art. 7)

2. Budget of the European Communities - Principles - Annual nature and unity - Reflected in the obligation to carry over the budgetary surplus into the budget of the following financial year - Partial carry-over - Unlawful

(EEC Treaty, Arts 199 and 202; Council Decision of 24 June 1988, Art. 7; Financial Regulation, Art. 32)

3. Communities' own resources - VAT resources - Rate fixed by the decision on the Communities' own resources - Application for a given financial year of a lower rate adequate to cover the expenditure deemed necessary - Whether permissible

(Council Decision of 24 June 1988, Art. 2(4))

4. Application for annulment - Judgment annulling a measure - Effects - Limitation by the Court - Invalidity of an amending and supplementary budget of the European Communities

(EEC Treaty, Art. 174(2))

Summary

1. By providing in general terms that any surplus in the Communities' own resources over total expenditure during one financial year is to be carried over to the following financial year, without referring to a particular type of resource or to a specific amount of surplus, Article 7 of the decision on the Communities' own resources refers to the entire surplus declared, irrespective of its origin, and not only the portion of that surplus derived from the resources based on the gross national product of the Member States.

2. The rule in Article 7 of the decision on the Communities' own resources and in Article 32 of the Financial Regulation that the surplus in own resources over expenditure during one financial year may be carried over to the following financial year is merely the expression of two fundamental principles in budgetary matters, namely that of the annual nature of the budget and that of the unity of the budget. Those principles, laid down in Articles 199 and 202 of the Treaty, require that all the revenue available to the Community for a given financial year be entered in the budget for that financial year. It follows that the failure to enter a portion of the surplus balance for one financial year in the following financial year, inasmuch as it has the effect that the budget for the latter financial year does not reflect all the revenue available to the Community for that financial year, infringes the abovementioned principles. Because it carried over only a portion of the surplus, amending and supplementary budget No 2 for the financial year 1990 is unlawful and the act whereby the President of the Parliament declared that it had been finally adopted must be annulled.

3. The obligation to apply Article 2(4) of the decision on the European Communities' own resources, which provides that the VAT resource is to be fixed at 1.4% of the VAT assessment base for Member States, must be interpreted in the light of the purpose of that decision. It is thus permissible to fix a rate lower than 1.4% in an exceptional case where the compulsory application of the rule that the surplus in one financial year is to be carried over to the following year means that the revenue available to the Communities for the latter year bears no relation to the expenditure deemed necessary.

4. Important reasons of legal certainty and the need to guarantee the continuity of the European public service require that the annulment of the act whereby the President of the Parliament declared that an amending and supplementary budget had been finally adopted, coming after the financial year was closed, may not affect the validity of either payments or commitments or operations relating to the call-up and levy of own resources before the judgment annulling that act was delivered.