European Parliament resolution on the situation concerning the European Union's own resources in 2001 (2001/2019(INI))
Date: 2001-07-05
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: European Union, budget policy, financing of the EU budget, own resources

14.3.2002

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Thursday 5 July 2001

Agrees to the additional remarks for Article B7-702A allowing administrative expenditure for Arti-

6.
cles B7-704 and B7-709 to be covered without requiring additional appropriations;

Considers that the adjustments in the OLAF establishment plan in DSAB No 3/2001 do not reflect

7.
the objectives that OLAF should achieve according to Parliament(cid:146)s approach;

Agrees to the part of DSAB No 3/2001 that deals with the Economic and Social Committee and the

8.
Committee of the Regions;

9.

Agrees to the part of the DSAB No 4/2001 that deals with the revenue side of the budget;

Is deeply concerned about the budgetary rigour of the Commission and the Council, when the

10.
expenditure of the year 2000 was over-estimated by € 8,5 billion, or 10,6 %;

Amends Draft Supplementary and Amending Budgets No 3/2001 and No 4/2001 concerning the

11.
following elements:

(cid:129) Research establishment plan: place 15 posts in the lower levels of the corresponding categories;

(cid:129) OLAF establishment plan: welcomes the approval of the budgetary amendment to the OLAF establish-
ment plan modifying the breakdown between permanent and temporary posts and restoring the
3 posts deleted by the Council and enters € 3,8 billion in reserve until a redeployment of 10 A
officials from OLAF to the Commission services is achieved and until a favourable opinion is given
by OLAF Supervisory Committee;

(cid:129) B7-54: increase payment appropriations required for the EU assistance in the Balkans;

12.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the other institutions.

4. EU own resources in 2001

A5-0238/2001

European Parliament resolution on the situation concerning the European Union(cid:146)s own resources
in 2001 (2001/2019(INI))

The European Parliament,

(cid:129) having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 272
thereof, and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Arti-
cle 173 thereof,

(cid:129) having regard to Council Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom of 31 October 1994 on the European Com-

munities(cid:146) system of own resources (1),

(cid:129) having regard to Council Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom of 29 September 2000 on the system of

the European Communities(cid:146) own resources (2),

(cid:129) having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the 2001 financial year, finally

adopted on 14 December 2000 (3),

(cid:129) having regard to its resolutions of 21 April 1994 on a new system of own resources for the European

Union (4) and 22 November 1990 on the future financing of the European Community (5),

(1) OJ L 293, 12.11.1994, p. 9.
(2) OJ L 253, 7.10.2000, p. 42.
(3) OJ L 56, 26.2.2001, p. 1.
(4) OJ C 128, 9.5.1994, p. 363.
(5) OJ C 324, 24.12.1990, p. 243.

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(cid:129) having regard to its resolution of 11 March 1999 on the need to modify and reform the European

Union(cid:146)s own resources system (1),

(cid:129) having regard to its position of 17 November 1999 (2) on the proposal for a Council decision on the
the European Union(cid:146)s own resources (COM(1999) 333 (cid:129) C5-0092/1999 (cid:129) 1999/

system of
0139(CNS)) (3),

(cid:129) having regard to the document entitled (cid:145)Financing the European Union (cid:129) Commission Report on the

Operation of the Own Resources System(cid:146) (COM(1998) 560 (cid:129) C4-0579/1998),

(cid:129) having regard to Rule 163 of its Rules of Procedure,

(cid:129) having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A5-0238/2001),

A. whereas the new Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom will replace Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom after

ratification in the Member States, coming into force on 1 January 2002,

B. whereas appropriations for payments of € 92,569 billion were entered in the 2001 budget, of which

€ 90,972 billion has to be raised from own resources,

C. whereas own resources are made up of traditional own resources (TOR), the resource accruing from
value-added tax (VAT resource) and the GNP, or fourth resource (the application of a rate to the sum
of the Member States(cid:146) GNP), as laid down in Decision 94/728/EC,

D. whereas, in the 2001 budget, the GNP resource accounts for the largest share of total Community
own resources (47,54 %), with the VAT resource accounting for 36,79 % and TOR for 15,67 %,

E. whereas customs duties account for by far the largest share of TOR (86,62 %), the remainder being

derived from agricultural duties and levies, and sugar and isoglucose levies,

F. whereas the own resources share accounted for by TOR has decreased from 29,1 % in the 1988
budget to 15,7 % in the 2001 budget, the share accounted for by the VAT resource has fallen from
60 % to 36,8 %, and the GNP resource has become the most important own resource, increasing from
10,9 % to 47,5 %,

G. whereas an estimated € 1,597 billion, or 1,73 % of the initial 2001 budget, is covered by revenue paid
not by the Member States, but directly into the EU budget, representing 0,019 % of the Member States(cid:146)
GNP; whereas more than half of this non-own-resources revenue stems from the surplus available
from the 2000 budget (€ 900 million), the other sources being miscellaneous Community taxes, levies
and dues (€ 562,3 million), revenue accruing from the administrative operation of the institutions
(€ 62,0 million), contributions to Community programmes, repayment of expenditure etc.
(€ 45,6
million), borrowing and lending operations (€ 22,3 million) and miscellaneous revenue (€ 5,1 million),

H. whereas the Commission has presented the third report on the operation of the inspection arrange-
ments for traditional own resources (1997-1999) (COM(2001) 32), which describes the inspections
carried out by the Commission,

I. whereas the Commission has discovered a considerable number of anomalies,

irregularities and
instances of fraud; whereas Community claims were submitted for the recovery of unduly unpaid
amounts and for late-payment interest, as a result of which, in 1997 to 1999, additional entitlements
of € 3,04 million and € 6,97 million in late-payment interest were paid into Community accounts,

(1) OJ C 175, 21.6.1999, p. 238.
(2) OJ C 189, 7.7.2000, p. 72.
(3) OJ C 274 E, 28.9.1999, p. 39.

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J. whereas for 1998 customs duties and the EU share of VAT lost to the EU budget through cigarette
smuggling are put at € 118 million, and the total loss to the EU budget and all Member States(cid:146) budgets
(tax losses) is put at between € 1 and 5 billion per year,

K. whereas the Commission filed a civil action against Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds (Nabisco) before the
US District Court of Eastern New York on 3 November 2000 seeking compensation for financial
losses the EU has suffered from cigarette smuggling into the Community market and injunctive relief
in order to prevent further smuggling,

1.
Takes note of the Commission(cid:146)s estimates of expected 2001 revenues, on which the revenue side of
the 2001 budget is based, and urges the Commission to update its estimates for 2001 budget revenues
after the 2001 SAB on balances is adopted;

2.
Notes that own resources constitute 98,3 % of revenue for the 2001 EU budget, which means that
the resources to be collected by the Member States on behalf of the EU and transferred to it are equivalent
to 1,06 % of their GNP;

3.
Notes that payments under the 2001 EU budget have increased to € 93,305 billion (including
Supplementary and Amending Budgets 1/2001 and 2/2001), compared to € 89,441 billion under the
2000 budget; stresses that this represents 1,09 % of the Member States(cid:146) GNP in 2001 (January 2001),
compared to 1,11 % in 2000, confirming the trend for a virtually constant reduction in the share of
Community GNP accounted for by the EU budget, which has fallen from 1,20 % since 1996;

Recalls that Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom, which will come into force on 1 January 2002, fails to

4.
take into account the position Parliament adopted on 17 November 1999;

5.
Recalls its view that the (cid:145)EU must move steadily away from dependence on transfers from Member
States(cid:146) and that (cid:145)in the long term, the own resources system must be modified with a view to achieving
financial autonomy(cid:146); believes that the purpose of the reform should be to provide the Union with an
autonomous source of revenue which is sufficient for its needs and directly linked to the taxpayers;

Takes the view that own resources should be developed in order to be more transparent and visible

6.
to citizens;

Notes that the GNP resource share has increased steadily and significantly between 1988 and 2001

7.
while TOR and VAT resource shares have decreased over that period;

8.
Notes that the effect of the new Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom will be to heighten this trend
further, because of an increase from 10 % to 25 % in the proportion of TOR to be kept by the Member
States, by way of collection costs, and because of the reduction in the maximum call-in rate for the VAT
resource, which is currently 1 % and has been set at 0,75 % for 2002 and 2003 and 0,50 % from 2004
onwards;

Deplores the fact that the Council has not exploited the opportunity afforded by the adoption of the
9.
new Decision to move towards financial autonomy for the European Union and full involvement of Par-
liament in the budgetary procedure, notably concerning the revenue side;

10. Welcomes the announcement by the Belgian Government that it will propose launching a debate
on defining a new budgetary framework over the medium term, during the Belgian Presidency, which
could lead to discussions on the desirability of a European tax;

Recalls that the new Decision replaces the old European System of Accounts from 1979 (ESA 79)
11.
by the new system from 1995 (ESA 95) without changing the amount available under the own resources
ceiling; stresses that this will lead to an adjustment to the own resources ceiling percentage, probably
reducing it from 1,27 % to 1,25 %, for which Annexes I and II to the Interinstitutional Agreement of
6 May 1999 (financial perspective and financial framework) will have to be adapted; stresses that this
unilateral decision by Council was criticised in Parliament(cid:146)s position of 17 November 1999;

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12. Welcomes the efforts by the Commission and the Court of Auditors to discover anomalies, irregu-
larities and instances of fraud; notes that the Commission carried out 70 inspections during the period
1997-1999, discovering 246 anomalies in the process; insists that the Commission step up efforts to
recover a higher volume of costs stemming from anomalies, irregularities and fraud, and finally reduce
the scale on which these infringements of rules take place in order to avoid additional costs for the
European taxpayer;

13. Welcomes the Commission(cid:146)s announcement to examine the operational consequences of holding
the Member States liable for some of the errors committed by their administrations; invites, however, the
Commission to explore all possibilities of including losses to the EU budget because of non-collection of
TOR in the Member States payments to the EU budget;

14.
Supports the legal action by the Commission against US tobacco companies for cigarette smuggling,
and deplores the fact that not all Member States have become joined to the Commission(cid:146)s suit, which
might result in a major loss of taxpayers(cid:146) money in those Member States;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Court of

15.
Justice and the Court of Auditors.

5. 2002 budget: conciliation procedure

A5-0241/2001

European Parliament draft resolution on the 2002 budget in view of the conciliation procedure
before the Council(cid:146)s first reading (2001/2063(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), and in particular Annex III thereof,

(cid:129) having regard to the preliminary draft budget of the Commission for 2002 (C5-0300/2001)

(cid:129) having regard to its resolution of 3 April 2001 on the guidelines for the 2002 budget procedure (cid:129)

Section III (cid:129) Commission (2),

(cid:129) having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets and the opinions of the Committee on
Agriculture and Rural Development, Committee on Fisheries, the Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy and the Committee on Employment and Social
Affairs (A5-0241/2001),

A. whereas the Commission has presented a preliminary draft budget for 2002 which foresees an

increase of 3,49 % in commitment appropriations compared to the 2001 budget,

B. whereas the increase in total payment appropriations is 4,8 % compared to the 2001 budget, repre-
senting nonetheless only 1,06 % of the combined GNP of the Member States which represents an
historical low; whereas the ceiling under the financial perspective for 2002 is 1,14 % of EU GNP,

C. whereas the conciliation before Council(cid:146)s first reading aims, in particular, to evaluate the needs and to
secure an agreement on the appropriate level of expenditure for agriculture, international fisheries
agreements and the common foreign and security policy, now including defence policy; whereas the
first reading conciliation is also an occasion to secure agreement on other expenditure,

(1) OJ C172, 18.6.1999, p 1.
(2)
(cid:145)Texts Adopted(cid:146), Item 9.