WRITTEN QUESTION E-3363/02 by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission. Correcting future situations in Portugal.
Date: 2002-11-27
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European accounting system, Portugal, budget deficit, budgetary control, implementation of the budget, management accounting, stability pact

C 192 E/108

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

14.8.2003

(2003/C 192 E/105)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3363/02

by Paulo Casaca (PSE) to the Commission

(27 November 2002)

Subject: Correcting future situations in Portugal

According to the Diário de Noticias of 11 November 2002, under the heading ‘Deficit to exceed 3 %’,
notice is given of a circular from the State Secretariat for the Budget instructing its services that spending
needs to be held over to 2003, ‘given the current budgetary restrictions’.

The same paper says that ‘some items for previous years are being used to pay 2002 bills, which affects
the deficit from the point of view of the national accounts. This is already visible in the statements of
budgetary expenditure, and could lead to requests for the Banco de Portugal (Central Bank) and the
[Portuguese] Court of Auditors to intervene’.

Are these the procedures which merited such praise from the Commission as a way of fighting the deficit
in Portugal? Does the Commission believe that this is the right way to follow up its guidelines on
budgetary discipline?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(8 January 2003)

is,

that

‘when economic value is created,

The figures relevant for budgetary surveillance purposes,
in particular for the implementation of the
Stability and Growth Pact are those calculated on a national accounts basis. The rules and procedures
adopted to compile national accounts are laid down in the European system of national and regional
accounts in the Community (ESA 95). As a general principle, all transactions are recorded on an accrual
basis;
transformed or extinguished, or when claims and
obligations arise, are transformed or cancelled’ (1). As an example, government expenditure is recorded
when the commitment is made, and a corresponding liability is incurred, and not necessarily when the
actual payment takes place, irrespectively of the procedure followed on a public accounts basis for the time
of recording of a transaction. The latter is perhaps what the quote from the newspaper article published in
‘Diário de Notícias’ on 9 November 2002, mentioned by the Honourable Member, refers to. Moreover, the
Commission does not as a rule comment on opinion articles published by the press, mentioning other
institutions than the Commission, in particular when they are only partly quoted, as in this case.

In the framework of budgetary surveillance in general, and in particular, of the application of Council
Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 (2), which provides for the notification of semi-annual deficit and debt data,
the Commission is entrusted with the checking of the data notified by Member States, as regards their
compliance with the recording rules and procedures laid down in the ESA 95 system. The data have to be
validated by the Commission before it can be used for the purposes of budgetary surveillance, according to
the relevant Community legislation.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in

the Community (cid:1) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996.

(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 of 22 November 1993 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive

deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community (cid:1) OJ L 332, 31.12.1993.

(2003/C 192 E/106)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3387/02

by Ioannis Marínos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 November 2002)

Subject: Mobile telephone antennae

There is great concern in Greece at the huge number of mobile telephone antennae being set up on high
buildings in urban areas. Protests focus on the fact that these antennae are placed on top of blocks of flats
in which scores or even hundreds of people live, in the immediate vicinity of nurseries, primary and