WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2738/97 by Gianni TAMINO to the Commission. Community contributions to animal experiments
Date: 1997-09-01
Institutions: European Parliament, TAMINO
Subjects: EU aid, EU financing, action programme, animal experimentation, application of EU law, protection of animals, research, research method

C 117/56

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

16. 4. 98

The current system of Community financing balances two elements, namely each Member State(cid:146)s contributive
capacity to the Community budget and the need to finance the common policies which constitute the foundation
of  the  Community.  With  regard  to  the  first  element,  it  is  essential  that  the  system  of  financing  is  fair  and
equitable.  Indeed,  according  to  a  recent  review  of  these  issues  by  the  Commission,  equity,  measured  by
contributions to the budget relative to the size of each Member State(cid:146)s economy in the Community total, has
improved and it is expected to improve even further. This improvement has been the result of the 1988 and 1992
reforms which raised the importance of gross national product (GNP), and limited that of value added tax (VAT),
as a base for financing the Community. It is forecast that by 1999 the share of the GNP resource will exceed 50%
of the budget.

Community expenditure reflects a political consensus between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission
regarding  the  Community(cid:146)s  common  policies,  especially  the  common  agricultural  policy  (CAP)  and  the
structural funds. While contributions are proportional to the Member State(cid:146)s GNP, expenditure is not strictly
related to GNP and, as a result, it plays a major role in the determination of the balance between contributions to
and receipts from the budget.

Many of these issues are addressed in (cid:145)Budget contributions, EU expenditure, budgetary balances and relative
prosperity of the Member States(cid:146), a paper presented by the Commission at the Ecofin Council of 13 October
1997 (1). It is important to note that the Commission does not prepare data on the net budgetary positions of the
Member  States,  neither  does  it  consider  such  data  represent  accurately  the  benefits  from  membership  of  the
Community.

The contribution of traditional own resources (TOR), that is customs and agricultural duties and sugar levies, to
the financing of the Community budget has declined significantly. They still play a more than proportional role
for some Member States which have particularly important port facilities through which foreign goods enter the
Community.  Thus,  for  example,  in  1996  contributions  from  TOR  collected  by  the  Netherlands  amounted  to
11.9% of total TOR receipts, while the Netherlands(cid:146) share in Community GNP was 4.6%.

As noted in Agenda 2000, there are no plans to review the system of own resources at this stage. However, the
Commission has also recognized that it may be appropriate to replace contributions from TOR with contributions
based on GNP. Agenda 2000 mentions that with the declining importance of TOR in the budget, (cid:145)the balance
between  their  advantages  and  disadvantages  as  a  source  of  Community  finances  shifts  towards  the  latter.  In
particular, their collection and recovery procedures are very complicated, exposed to fraud and very constly in
terms of controls. This would not mean that the Union could ignore the effective collection of customs duties by
Member States since these duties constitute an instrument of Union trade policy, but would modify substantially
the perspective of its involvement in this complex area(cid:146).

(1)  SEC(97) 1918.

(98/C 117/69)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2738/97

by Gianni Tamino (V) to the Commission

(1 September 1997)

Subject: Community contributions to animal experiments

The  communication  of  18  September  1995  to  the  orthopaedic  clinic  of  the  Sacred  Heart  catholic  university,
Rome, concerning experiments on 72 rabbits, on analysis of the characteristics of in vivo biocompatibility of
ceramic material for orthopaedic purposes mentions under (cid:145)Funds(cid:146) an (cid:145)agreement No 7090699 with the EEC(cid:146)
without giving any details.

What type of experiments were involved and what is the total Community contribution?

What results beneficial to man were obtained?

Will the undertaking given in the Fifth environmental programme to reduce experiments on animals by 50% by
the year 2000 be adhered to?