Opinion No 2/2008 on a proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 implementing Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom on the system of the Communities' own resources
Date: 2008-07-03
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: Member States' contribution, financial control, financial regulation, financing of the EU budget, own resources

29.7.2008

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Official Journal of the European Union

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I

(Resolutions, recommendations and opinions)

OPINIONS

COURT OF AUDITORS

on a proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000
implementing Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom on the system of the Communities’ own resources

OPINION No 2/2008

(2008/C 192/01)

THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu-
nity and in particular Article 248(4), second subparagraph and
Article 279(2) thereof,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic
Energy Community and in particular Articles 160c(4) and 183
thereof,

Having regard to the Council Decision 2007/436/EC, Euratom of
7 June 2007 on the system of the European Communities’ own
resources (1),

Having regard to the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation
applicable to the general budget of the European Communi-
ties (2), as last amended by the Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 1995/2006 (3),

Having regard to the previous opinions given by the Court of
Auditors on the system of the European Communities’ own
resources and its Opinion No 2/2006 on a proposal for a Coun-
cil Decision on the system of the European Communities’ own
resources (4) in particular,

(1) OJ L 163, 23.6.2007, p. 17.
(2) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 390, 30.12.2006, p. 1.
(4) OJ C 203, 25.8.2006, p. 50.

Having regard to the Council’s request, dated 19 May 2008, for
the Court of Auditors’ opinion on the proposal for a Council
Euratom)
Regulation (5)
No 1150/2000 (6) implementing Decision 2000/597/EC, Eura-
tom on the system of
the European Communities’ own
resources (7),

Regulation

amending

(EC,

Whereas the Berlin European Council of 24 and 25 March 1999
concluded (8), inter alia, that the Union’s own resources system
should be equitable, transparent, cost-effective and simple and
that it must be based on criteria which best express each Member
State’s ability to contribute,

Whereas the Brussels European Council of 15 and 16 Decem-
ber 2005 reached agreement (9), inter alia, that the own resources
arrangements should be guided by the overall objective of equity,
that these arrangements should therefore ensure that no Member
State sustains a budgetary burden which is excessive in relation to
its relative prosperity and that these arrangements should accord-
ingly introduce provisions covering specific Member States,

(5) COM(2008) 223 final of 29 April 2008.
(6) OJ L 130, 31.5.2000, p. 1. Regulation amended by Regulation (EC,

Euratom) No 2028/2004 (OJ L 352, 27.11.2004, p. 1).

(7) OJ L 253, 7.10.2000, p. 42.
(8) See Bulletin EU 3-1999.
(9) See paragraph 6 of the Presidency Conclusions (Council Document
15914/1/05, REV 1, CONCL 3 of 30 January 2006) referring to Coun-
cil Document 15915/05 CADREFIN 268 of 19 December 2005, and
in particular paragraph 77 thereof.

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Whereas the Court noted in its Opinion No 2/2006 that:

II. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

(a) no criteria have been laid down to determine on an objective
basis whether a budgetary burden is excessive and when a
Member State should benefit from a correction;

(b)

there is no mechanism for monitoring, over time, whether a
budgetary burden continues to be excessive and whether it is
still justified that a Member State benefits from a correction;
and

(c)

there is no mechanism which would allow Member States
other than those explicitly mentioned in the proposal to
qualify for a correction,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION:

I. INTRODUCTION

The Commission’s proposal for a Council Regulation
1.
amending Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 updates the
rules for the implementation of the new Decision 2007/436/EC,
Euratom on the system of the European Communities’ own
resources, in particular:

(a)

the elimination of the distinction between agricultural duties
and import duties;

(b)

the inclusion of gross reductions for the Netherlands and
Sweden in their annual GNI-based contributions for the
period 2007-2013.

2.
Furthermore, it takes into consideration the evolution of
Community legislation since the last amendments introduced by
Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2028/2004. The main elements
concern:

(a)

the references to GNP/GNI;

(b)

the references to EAGGF (1) Guarantee Section/EAGF;

(c)

the reserve relating to loans and loan guarantees and reserve
for emergency aid;

(d)

the efficient management of own resources accounts; and

(e)

the consolidation of Article 10.

The proposed Regulation as well as

3.
the Decision
2007/436/EC, Euratom should enter into force once Member
States have adopted the Decision in accordance with their con-
of
stitutional
1 January 2007.

requirements, with retroactive

effect

as

(1) Furthermore, the references to the EAGGF monetary reserve have been
deleted as this reserve was intended to be used during the years 2000-
2002.

4.
The concerns expressed in the Court’s Opinion No 2/2006
on the added complexity of the amended system of the European
Communities’ own resources were not taken into account in
Decision 2007/436/EC, Euratom. The Court concluded that this
Decision moved further away from an own resources system
based on clear and generally applied mechanisms, towards
national contributions negotiated on a country by country basis.

5.
Furthermore, the Opinion called on the Commission to
reconsider the legal form of the document setting out provisions
on calculation, financing, payment and entry in the budget of the
correction of budgetary imbalances in favour of the United King-
dom. The Court considers that the Commission proposal under
examination should have included such provisions.

6.
The modifications proposed by the Commission in
COM(2008) 223 final generally update the provisions for the
implemention of Decision 2007/436/EC, Euratom.

7.
The Court welcomes the other amendments proposed
which aim to update references, terms and rules in the areas of
GNP/GNI, EAGGF/EAGF and reserves (relating to loans, loan
guarantees and for emergency aid), and to provide a revised and
consolidated text of Article 10. It also supports the proposed new
provisions intended to improve the Commission’s management
of own resources accounts.

III. SPECIFIC REMARKS

8.
Article 1(4) of the Commission’s proposal foresees that
Article 3(2) of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 is
replaced by a new text regarding the keeping of supporting docu-
ments relating to the statistical procedures and bases referred to
in the GNI Regulation (2). The previous text also included the
same rule relating to VAT resources which in the Court’s view
should be maintained.

Throughout the text of the Commission’s proposal (3), the
9.
‘UK correction’ is referred to as the ‘correction granted to the
United Kingdom for budgetary imbalances’, except for Article 1(6)
introducing a modification to Article 6(3)(c), which refers to the
‘correction granted to the United Kingdom’. In order to ensure
consistency, this needs to be modified.

10.
Article 1(8) of the Commission’s proposal provides a
consolidated version of Article 10. The proposed Article 10(9)

(2) Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1287/2003 of 15 July 2003 on
income at market prices

the harmonisation of gross national
(OJ L 181, 19.7.2003, p. 1).

(3) This does not apply however to the German and Italian language ver-

sions.

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concerns the gross reduction granted to the Netherlands and to
Sweden, introduced by Decision 2007/436/EC, Euratom. In the
second sentence, it is stated that there shall be no subsequent revi-
sion of the financing of that gross reduction in the event of sub-
sequent modification of the GNI figure. The Court understands
that this lack of subsequent revision might be justified on the
basis of cost-effectiveness, but it considers that in principle this is
not in line with the objective of equity, recalled by the European
Council on several occasions.

11.
As in the previous system of the European Communities’
own resources, Article 2(7) of Decision 2007/436/EC, Euratom

states that should modifications to the European System of
Accounts (1) (ESA 95) result in significant changes in the GNI as
provided by the Commission, the Council, after consulting the
European Parliament, shall decide whether these modifications
shall apply for the purposes of own resources. The same Decision
also introduced a new Article 3(3) which states that should such
modifications indeed apply, the ceilings of the annual appropria-
tions for payments and commitments shall be recalculated using
a specified formula (2). In order to allow a consistent application
of these rules, in case of further revisions of ESA 95, the Court
proposes that implementing provisions should be included in the
amendment of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 to set
out principles defining the term ‘significant changes’.

This Opinion was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of 3 July 2008.

For the Court of Auditors
Vítor Manuel DA SILVA CALDEIRA
President

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 (OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1),
last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1392/2007 of the European Par-
liament and of the Council (OJ L 324, 10.12.2007, p. 1).

(2) In Council Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom (OJ L 253, 7.10.2000,
p. 42), the recalculation of these ceilings is also foreseen. However, it
applies for modifications to ESA 95 which result in changes in the
level of GNI (without including the term ‘significant’).