European Parliament resolution on the guidelines for the 2002 budget procedure - Section III – Commission (2000/2324(BUD))
Date: 2001-04-03
Institutions: Committee on Budgets, European Parliament
Subjects: Community budget, budget estimate, budgetary discipline (EU), budgetary procedure

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28.
Stresses that there is a substantial difference between soft and hard PVC and it is therefore import-
ant to separate their waste as early as possible, with a view to directing hard PVC waste as a priority
towards recycling or landfill and soft PVC waste towards incineration, which, due to the lower chlorine
content in soft PVC, is potentially less dangerous than landfill where there are risks of losses of plasticisers,
especially phatalates;

Supports, in accordance with the hierarchy of principles established by the European waste manage-

29.
ment strategy, the option of incineration with energy recovery;

30.
Proposes that the (cid:145)polluter pays(cid:146) principle be applied in full, thereby charging producers for part of
the additional costs incurred because of the presence of PVC in incinerated waste, and proposes that this
approach be extended to the processing of other types of waste which entail extra costs;

Landfill

31.
Notes that neither incineration nor landfill is a sustainable option for management of waste PVC;
only separate storage of hard PVC can be regarded as a temporary solution in this connection, pending
increases in recycling capacity;

Calls on the Commission to evaluate all available studies of the long-term behaviour of PVC at

32.
dumps in order to be able to judge whether it is safe;

33.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission.

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9. 2002 budget guidelines: Section III

A5-0102/2001

European Parliament resolution on the guidelines for the 2002 budget procedure (cid:129) Section III (cid:129)
Commission (2000/2324(BUD))

The European Parliament,

(cid:129) having regard to Article 272 of the EC Treaty, Article 177 of the Euratom Treaty and Article 78 of the

ECSC Treaty,

(cid:129) having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament,
the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary pro-
cedure (1),

(cid:129) having regard to the report of the Committee on Budget and the opinions of the Committee on
Development and Cooperation, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on
the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, the Committee on Citizens(cid:146) Freedoms and
Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security
and Defence Policy, the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, the Committee on
Agriculture and Rural Development, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Com-
mittee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (A5-0102/2001),

A. whereas European citizens must be more closely involved in the Union(cid:146)s activities,

B. whereas there is a need to reinforce the efficiency and the transparency of the Union(cid:146)s programmes,

C. whereas it is indispensable to aim for a continual balance between the response to the major institu-
tional, macro-economic and geo-political questions and the answers to daily challenges encountered
on an individual level such as environment, employment, equality of opportunity between women and
men, education, the information and knowledge-based society, drugs, social exclusion and food safety,

(1) OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1.

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D. whereas EU policies must encourage a stronger spirit of initiative, self-responsibility and self-reliance,
social responsibility and social skills among citizens, in particular through the promotion of better
educational and professional qualifications,

E. whereas Parliament is determined to do all that it can further to improve the quality and effectiveness
of EU expenditure in order to ensure a budget which better serves the citizen and which provides
value-for-money,

F. whereas economic and social cohesion is a necessary common reference point for all the policies of

the Union and will continue to play a central role, also in the context of enlargement,

G. whereas the situation in headings 1, 4 and 5 of the financial perspective make it considerably more
difficult to finance unforeseen Union expenditure; considers that the flexibility instrument should not,
as a rule, be used to cover the same need two years running;

H. whereas the Nice Treaty, through its new actions and structures, once ratified, can also be expected to
have an important impact on expenditure requirements, especially in heading 5; whereas this impact
has to be quantified without delay,

I. whereas the European Parliament expects greater openness and transparency in the EU, particularly

from the Council,

Political priorities

Food safety, consumer confidence and sustainable agriculture

1.
Takes the view that food safety and quality, consumer protection, and sustainable agriculture must be
priority political and economic objectives of the European Union, with a view to restoring public con-
fidence particularly in the context of the BSE crisis; affirms the need to provide for improvements in the
monitoring and implementation of food safety, for a firmer political and financial commitment to a food
quality policy, as well as for a strengthening of the role of the consumer; emphasises the importance of
giving firm backing for the Veterinary Inspection Office and the new European Food Safety Authority;

2.
Considers that the BSE crisis gives the Union and its Member States the obligation, but also the
opportunity, further to reform the common agricultural policy; takes the view that the implications of
enlargement for agriculture are still an open issue; recalls the challenges resulting from the forthcoming
multilateral round on agriculture; underlines the importance of the Commission report on the future of
agricultural spending, due to be presented in 2002; believes nonetheless that any measure to be taken now
in response to the crisis must anticipate the abovementioned aspects and be a coherent element of a
comprehensive new long-term strategy to be formulated by 15 September 2001;

Performance and priority-setting in external policies

3.
Is determined to maintain the Union(cid:146)s commitments in external relations; believes that a more rigor-
ous evaluation by the budgetary authority of the performance, in both qualitative and quantitative terms,
of the different programmes should contribute to more coherent priority-setting and should help achieve a
greater margin for manoeuvre; recalls the agreement reached in the 2001 budget procedure (1) on improv-
ing performance and reducing the backlog in unpaid commitments (RAL); reminds the Commission that
performance targets need to be established first before a meaningful evaluation of performance can be
made;

4.
States its willingness to analyse, where appropriate, the multi-annual requirements of the different
programmes to which the EU is committed in the field of external relations in order to assess the level of
resources required to maintain the Union(cid:146)s commitments to third countries; again requests the Council to
abstain from launching new initiatives which have financial implications without discussing with Parlia-
ment the budgetary requirements;

(1)

Joint declaration on the progress report the Commission is to submit by 30 June 2001,
14 December 2000, Item 3, Annex.

(cid:145)Texts Adopted(cid:146) of

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Improved implementation

5.
Stresses the importance of the EU-budget implementation record, both in quantitative and qualitative
terms, as a basis for future budgetary and legislative decisions; recalls the abovementioned joint declaration
of Parliament and Council at the end of the 2001 budget procedure laying down a road map for better
implementation by the Commission and providing for a progress report to be submitted by the end of
June 2001;

Expects the results of the evaluation of the different programmes to form the basis for the establish-

6.
ment of the 2002 budget; assumes that there will be close cooperation with the Council in this process;

The driving force of Commission reform

7. Will continue to support Commission reform through appropriate budgetary measures, provided that
it can be demonstrated that the reform results in more efficient management and improved performance;
attaches importance to the development of new methods which enable the budgetary authority to evaluate
efficiency; hopes that, true to the rules of social dialogue, the Commission will continue to consult with
the parties concerned; calls on the Commission to assess the budgetary implications of the reform package;
stresses, however, Parliament(cid:146)s commitment to championing a high-calibre European administration;

8.
Stresses the need to give a fresh boost to reorganising Commission external delegations by radically
speeding up staff redeployment, cross-departmental redeployment to insufficiently staffed delegations and
top-down redeployment from central administrative departments and by harmonising ratios, which cur-
rently vary very widely, of administrative staff covered by the Staff Regulations to local staff;

9.
Stresses the importance of the further simplification of procedures, including commitology, and of
finding a better match between the Commission(cid:146)s annual legislative plans and the budgetary procedure,
beginning with the 2002 work programme and the 2002 budget;

Horizontal questions

ABB (cid:129) allocation of resources

10.
Notes the application of the activity-based budget system to the internal management of the Com-
mission, which it welcomes; underlines the aim of ABB to promote and clarify personal responsibility
among staff, and the need to increase flexibility in redeployment of staff; considers that this system permits
the budgetary authority to make a link between the implementation record of the various spending pro-
grammes and their allocation of resources; expects the activity-based budget system to result in increased
openness and a simplification of the budgetary procedure; rejects any attempt by the Commission to
undermine the institutional powers of the budgetary authority and particularly to use ABB as a pretext
for refusing resources needed for the implementation of priorities and initiatives chosen by Parliament;

Interinstitutional cooperation

11.
Considers that the distinction between compulsory and non-compulsory expenditure should be
removed and that CAP legislation should be brought under the codecision procedure; calls on the Com-
mission to make the necessary proposals as soon as possible so that these changes can be made at the next
Intergovernmental Conference; believes furthermore that subheading 1b should be extended and the clas-
sification of expenditure in subheading 1a should be reviewed;

Financial Regulation

12.
Recognises the significance of the Commission proposal on the recasting of the Financial Regu-
lation; criticises the decision of the IGC not to introduce codecision for financial regulations, and to
move to qualified-majority voting in Council only from 2007 onwards; takes this as a sign that the

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Member States are fundamentally unwilling to cooperate with Parliament in these matters, and deeply
regrets the shadow that this casts over cooperation in the budget procedure; will not hesitate to reflect
its position on the Financial Regulation in its budgetary decisions;

Improved monitoring of financial programming

13.
Expects to see implemented in full the agreement reached in the 2001 budget procedure on the
monitoring of legislative proposals with financial implications and the programming of expenditure on the
basis of the financial statements which accompany Commission proposals; (1)

Pre-accession and enlargement

14.
Desires to examine closely the effectiveness of pre-accession expenditure to assess if it is fulfilling its
purpose of preparing partner countries for membership; insists on the need to clarify the status of expen-
diture on the Mediterranean candidate countries as pre-accession expenditure; stresses the need to direct
the pre-accession instruments more seriously towards speeding up the convergence of the economies of
the candidate countries towards those of the Member States;

Asks the Commission and the Council to come to an agreement which allows for an adjustment of
15.
the Financial Perspectives so that allocations not used in heading 7 can be transferred to subsequent years,
according to the criteria applying to the Member States;

16. Welcomes enlargement in accordance with the targets and principles set by the European Parlia-
ment; considers that a rapid clarification is necessary at several levels if EU policies, especially the common
agricultural policy and cohesion policy, are to be equitably applied to existing and to new Member States;
calls therefore on the Commission to conduct a systematic study of which budget lines will be affected by
the processes of pre-accession and enlargement in order to take account of the expenditure requirements;

Payment appropriations

Expects appropriate account to be taken of the pressures on the 2002 budget, notably concerning
17.
payment appropriations in headings 1b (rural development), 2 (structural actions) and 7 (pre-accession), in
order to guarantee an orderly progression as between commitment and payment appropriations;

Sectoral questions

Heading 1

Recalls that the current BSE crisis has led to a serious loss of consumer confidence which can only
18.
be restored by an increasing shift in the focus of the CAP onto high-quality agricultural production, and by
the encouragement of farming methods which are economically and environmentally sustainable in the
long term;

19. Will support measures which are designed to help the farming sector cope with the consequences
of the BSE crisis, while maintaining budgetary discipline; intends to pay particular attention to the possi-
bilities of reform in heading 1a, given that provision for the BSE crisis will continue to reduce the margin
in that heading; considers that the request of the Berlin European Council in March 1999 for additional
savings to be pursued should take into account the particular circumstances in the agricultural sector
resulting from the present crises; recalls the particular responsibilities of the Member States, and underlines
the Council(cid:146)s powers to determine the relevant legislation;

Insists on being more closely involved by Council in the elaboration of any reforms in this sector;
20.
notes that Parliament will in any case be involved if reforms become necessary in order to fulfil the
requirements of the regulation on budgetary discipline;

(1) See European Parliament resolution of 26 October 2000 on the Interinstitutional Agreement on financial state-

ments, (cid:145)Texts Adopted(cid:146), Item 4.

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Heading 2

21.
Notes the late implementation of the programmes for the first year of the programming period
2000-2006, which was without doubt partly due to the late approval of operational programmes; wel-
comes the fact that, under the provisions of the Financial Regulation and the interinstitutional agreement,
appropriations may this year be fully re-entered in the budget; stresses the importance of ensuring a
balance between commitments and payments over the period; intends to investigate the causes for delays,
including the Commission(cid:146)s performance in dealing with the national programmes, so that those respon-
sible can be encouraged to take remedial action to ensure that the delays which have built up do not have
a knock-on effect in future years, and to improve their performance;

22.
Expects specific steps to be taken to achieve the Union(cid:146)s targets, as laid down in Article 299 of the
EC Treaty, adopting specific measures which take into account the special characteristics of the outermost
regions;

Considers that the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy to be decided for 2002 should be taken

23.
into account in the budgetary structure and expenditure provided for the fisheries policy in 2002;

Heading 3

24.
Emphasises the need for effective EU information policies, and underlines its determination to pur-
sue this objective in close collaboration with the Commission and other institutions, based on the success-
ful experience gathered with the existing Prince programme; notes the clarifications still expected from the
Commission in relation to the appropriations for information policy entered in the reserve;

25.
Notes the ongoing efforts of the Union to enhance employment and increase the competitiveness of
the European economy in line with the conclusions of the Lisbon and Stockholm European Council meet-
ings; will continue to ensure that these declarations are matched by actions under all appropriate budget
lines, particularly as regards SMEs;

26.
Considers that the e-learning initiative is an important step towards attaining the strategic goal, set
out at the Lisbon Council, of creating (cid:145)the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the
world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion(cid:146);
intends to provide appropriate budgetary support within the meaning of point 37 of the IIA of 6 May
1999 to this initiative, in order to prevent a digital divide and to ensure that the Information Society is
accessible to all citizens; and asks the Commission to explore the possibilities of providing an adequate
legal framework to complement the action taken by the Member States and to enhance it with a real
European added value;

Requests that adequate budgetary means be made available for actions implementing the future

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sustainable development strategy and the Cardiff environmental integration process;

28.
Recalls that the creation of a genuine European area of freedom, security and justice is of strategic
importance for the EU; in this context, underlines the urgent need to implement in legislative, budgetary
and administrative terms the priorities defined at the Tampere European Council in 1999 and to respect
the deadlines contained in the (cid:145)scoreboard(cid:146) drawn up by the Commission, particularly as regards policy on
asylum and migration;

Stresses the importance of stepping up activities to achieve the objective of developing a genuine

29.
and coherent asylum policy in the EU and the candidate countries;

30. Wishes to explore the possibilities for a concerted and objective approach to immigration policy;
believes that such an approach should make it possible for the Union to take appropriately targeted
measures to prevent social exclusion but also to tackle the international dimension of the problem, with
particular reference to illegal
immigration; considers that this approach should include measures to
improve border controls in non-member countries, including in the candidate countries, and measures to
combat trafficking in human beings; underlines the fact that the problems linked with illegal immigration
need to be better reflected in the existing external programmes of the Union;

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Heading 4

31.
Looks forward to the evaluation of reconstruction needs in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
which is due to be completed by the World Bank; expects the Commission thereafter to produce an up-
to-date, systematic evaluation of the multiannual needs in the whole Balkan region; also expects in this
connection a detailed multiannual programming proposal for heading 4 of the financial perspective; con-
siders that support for reconstruction and the establishment of democracy and the rule of law in Serbia is
extremely important, but that it must be tied to stringent political conditions and must not diminish the
attention accorded to, or encroach upon the resources allocated to, support for other parts of the western
Balkans under the CARDS programme;

32.
Confirms its willingness to develop further the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and the EU com-
mon strategy on the Mediterranean, notably through the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum, includ-
ing the Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Women Parliamentarians; desires to work together with the Com-
mission and the Member States to improve the implementation of the MEDA programme and to enhance
the utilisation of appropriations, taking account of the specific factors which distinguish it from other
external programmes;

33.

Underlines the fact that the policy of the Northern dimension should be developed;

34.
Notes the rapidity of developments in the field of CFSP and now ESDP (European security and
defence policy) which are pursued by the Member States with little apparent consideration of their budget-
ary aspects, or concern for parliamentary scrutiny; insists that the financial arrangements for these new
actions should be subject to the maximum possible transparency; demands that a joint approach be devel-
oped with Council, particularly as regards the financial perspective;

Demands that, in developing a CFSP, in addition to the creation of a network of military structures,
35.
an international consensus must be sought for a programme to dismantle and destroy weapons of mass
destruction (A, B and C), as has already begun with cooperation with Russia over the dismantling of
chemical weapons;

Heading 5

36. Will closely observe the Commission(cid:146)s initiatives on financial management, externalisation, Euro-
peAid, delegations, staffing, staff regulations, early retirement and pensions, in order to ensure that pro-
mised improvements are actually delivered; will also determine the appropriate budgetary consequences of
these reforms;

Heading 6

37.
Expresses concern at the current situation of the loan guarantee reserve and its impact on the
guarantee fund for external actions, which undermines the Union(cid:146)s capacity to react effectively in case of
unforeseen events; underlines the need to reach an agreement with Council on defining priorities for the
use of this reserve, given the limited margin for manoeuvre;

Concluding remarks

38.
Expects to reach an agreement on all issues of mutual interest and concern as early as possible in
the procedure and by exploiting all the possibilities offered by the IIA and its procedures for conciliation
between the institutions;

Notes the opinions of its specialised committees, on which it has deliberated, and which are

39.
annexed to the report of the Committee on Budgets;

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Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the other

40.
institutions.