Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament - Package of legislative proposals following the Interinstitutional Agreement on budgetary discipline and sound financial management
Date: 2006-05-24
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: budgetary discipline (EU), budgetary procedure, interinstitutional agreement

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 24.5.2006 
COM(2006) 239 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

Package of legislative proposals following the Interinstitutional Agreement on budgetary 
discipline and sound financial management 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

Package of legislative proposals following the Interinstitutional Agreement on budgetary 
discipline and sound financial management 

The  conclusion  on  17  May  2006  by  the  Commission,  the  Council  and  the  European 
Parliament  of  the  agreement  on  the  2007-2013  financial  framework  (Interinstitutional 
Agreement on budgetary discipline and sound financial management) marks a real success for 
Europe,  providing  a  stable  financial  framework  for  the  political  priorities  of  the  enlarged 
Union for the next seven years. It is now up to the institutions and Member States to ensure 
that the financial resources available are used and implemented as well as possible. Action at 
European  level  must  contribute  true  added  value  to  that  taken  at  national,  regional  or  local 
level and must have an optimum impact on each European player. The Commission is ready 
to play a full role in all these areas. 

The agreement marks a decisive step forward towards the ultimate objective of providing the 
Union with operational programmes by the beginning of 2007. Work must now be continued 
on  each  legislative  act.  To  this  end,  the  Commission  intends  to  continue  to  provide 
momentum and act as a facilitator, as it has been doing since the start of the negotiations. 

As  part  of  the  negotiations  on  the  2007-2013  financial  framework,  in  October  2005  the 
European Parliament, the Council and the Commission adopted a joint declaration in which 
they  undertook  to  continue  work  on  the  legislative  proposals  currently  being  discussed  and 
then,  once  the  interinstitutional  agreement  had  been  adopted  and  on  the  basis  of  amended 
proposals  by  the  Commission,  to  reach  agreement  on  each  of  these  proposals.  Thus,  in 
accordance with Article 250(2) of the EC Treaty and in order to facilitate this phase for each 
legislative  act,  the  Commission  today  adopted  a  total  of  30  proposals,  26  of  which  are 
amended and 4 new. 

Certain  legislative  acts  do  not  form  part  of  this  package  of  measures,  in  particular  those  on 
which  political  agreement  has  been  reached  since  17  May.  For  these  measures,  the 
Commission has played a full part in helping to bring about agreement between the arms of 
the  legislative  authority.  The  same  applies  to  the  acts  for  which  conclusion  of  the 
interinstitutional agreement does not modify the Commission’s original proposal. For all the 
others,  which  are  included  in  the  package  presented  today,  the  changes  proposed  by  the 
Commission take account of the content of the interinstitutional agreement adopted, either in 
a  simplified  form,  where  the  financial  resources  allocated  to  each  programme  must  be 
adapted, or in a more detailed form where the structure or even the content of the act must be 
revised.  It  should  also  be  noted  that  four  of  the  amended  proposals  contain  amendments 
already voted on by the European Parliament at first reading and that one proposal has been 
divided into two amended proposals in response to a request by the Council and the European 
Parliament, although Parliament has not yet proceeded to a first reading of this proposal. 

Based on these amended proposals, the Commission calls on the European Parliament and the 
Council  to  continue  their  discussions  of  these  proposals  and  conclude  them  as  soon  as 
possible in order to ensure that all the legal instruments are available in time for the effective 
launch of the programmes in January 2007. 

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