CELEX: 51987PC0400
Language: en
Date: 1987-07-24
Title: SECOND AMENDMENT OF THE PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( ECSC - EEC - EURATOM ) AMENDING THE FINANCIAL REGULATION OF 21 DECEMBER 1977 APPLICABLE TO THE GENERAL BUDGET OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

16.10. 87                                Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 278/'5
                                                                II
                                                        (Preparatory Acts)
                                                  COMMISSION
             Second amendment to the proposal for a Council Regulation amending the Financial Regulation
                  of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (')
                                                       COM(87) 400 final
                                 (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 29 July 1987)
                                                         (87/C 278/07)
 1. The following three recitals are added after the fourth          3. Article 7 of the amended proposal:
    recital
                                                                        paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 are amended as
                                                                        follows:
    'Whereas the Financial Regulation needs to be
    amended in the light of the measures to be taken to
    make a success of the Single Act as regards tighter                 '2.    In the case of budget headings where a
    budgetary discipline and greater transparency of                    distinction is made between commitment appro-
    budget appropriations, in particular by reinforcing                 priations and payment appropriations, commitment
    the principle of annuality;                                         appropriations and payment appropriations which
                                                                        have not been used at the end of the financial year
                                                                        for which they were entered may, by decision of the
    Whereas the Financial Regulation states that the                    Commission taken not later than 15 February, be
    budget shall by drawn up in ECU, that the amounts                   carried over to the next financial year only.
    shall be kept in ECU and that the revenue and
    expenditure account and the balance sheet shall be                  The Commission shall inform the budgetary
    presented in ECU; whereas the principle of                          authority of the decision taken and state the reasons
    expressing and implementing the Community's                         for carrying over the appropriations.
    financial rights and obligations in ECU should
    therefore be established;                                           3.    In the case of appropriations which were
                                                                        entered in the budget chapters containing "pro-
                                                                        visional appropriations" and which remain available
    Whereas the Financial Regulation must reflect the                   at the close of the financial year:
    changeover from the system of advances for the
    EAGGF Guarantee Section to a system of                              (a) appropriations     in respect     of   staff  and
    reimbursements to take account of the amendments                         administrative expenditure (Titles 1 and 2) may
    made to Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of 21 April                           not be carried over;
    1970 O ,
                                                                        (b) appropriations in respect of other expenditure
                                                                             may be carried over to the next financial year
    (s) OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 26'.                                     only.
                                                                        4.    In the case of appropriations on which a
 2. Article 1 (4) of the amended proposal: the following                decision to carry over may be taken under paragraph
    paragraph 4a is added                                               1 (b), the Commission shall submit to the budgetary
                                                                        authority, not later than 15 February, the duly
                                                                        substantiated requests to carry over appropriations
    '4a.    The legal commitments entered into for                      made by Parliament, the Council, the Court of
    measures extending over more than one financial                     Justice, the Court of Auditors and by the
    year shall contain a time limit for implementation                  Commission itself.
    which must be specified to the recipient in due form
    when the aid is granted.'                                           The Council shall consult Parliament and, acting by
                                                                        qualified majority, shall decide on the requests to
                                                                        carry over appropriations in respect of expenditure
                                                                        necessarily resulting from the Treaties or acts
O O J N o C 186, 16. 7. 1987, p. 7.                                     adopted in accordance therewith.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 278/6                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                    16.10.87
    Parliament shall consult the Council and act on the            6. Article 11 of the amended proposal:
    requests to carry over appropriations in respect of
    expenditure other than that necessarily resulting                  this Article is replaced by the following:
    from the Treaties or acts adopted in accordance
    therewith.
                                                                       '1.    The budget shall be drawn up in ECU.
    If no decision is taken by the budgetary authority
    within six weeks, the requests to carry over appro-                2.    The ECU is the sum of specified amounts of
    priations shall be deemed to have been approved.                   the currencies of the Member States as set out in
                                                                       Council Regulation (EEC) No 3180/78 of 18
    6.    The following appropriations shall lapse at the              December 1978 changing the value of the unit of
    end of the year:                                                   account      used    by the      European     Monetary
                                                                       Cooperation Fund (x) (2).
    (a) appropriations from the previous financial year:
        — appropriations carried over by decision of the               Any change in the composition of the ECU decided
            budgetary authority under paragraph 1 (b)                  on in accordance with Regulation (EEC) No
            which have been neither committed nor paid,                3180/78, shall automatically apply to this provision.
        — appropriations carried ouver automatically
            which have not been paid,                                  The value of the ECU in a given currency shall be
        — commitment appropriations and payment                        equal to the sum of the equivalents in that currency
             appropriations    carried    over    by     the           of the amounts of the currencies which make up the
             Commission     under     paragraph    2 and               ECU.
             remaining unused at the end of the financial
            year;                                                      3.     The financial rights and obligations of the
                                                                       Communities shall be expressed and implemented in
    (b) appropriations of the financial year which have                ECU.
         not been carried over.
    7.    When commitments in budget headings where                    4.     When the principle set out in the third
    there is a distinction between commitment appro-                   paragraph cannot be complied with because of
    priations and payment appropriations are cancelled                 special derogations arising from the application of
    in any financial year after that in which the                      sectoral rules governing debts or expenditure, any
    commitment appropriations were entered in the                      conversion between the ECU and a national
    budget, the appropriations concerned may be made                   currency shall be effected in accordance with the
                                                                       special provisions referred to in Article 123.'
    available again and recommitted.
    At the beginning of each financial year, the                    7. Article 19 of the amended proposal:
    Commission shall therefore examine the can-
    cellations which have taken place in the previous
    financial year and assess, in the light of                         (a) Paragraph 4 is replaced by the following:
    requirements, the need for making the appro-
    priations available again.                                              '4.    Each section of the budget containing
                                                                            appropriations for administrative expenditure
    The Commission shall take this decision by 15                           must include a chapter for provisional appro-
    February of each financial year: it shall inform the                    priations and a "contingency reserve" chapter.
    budgetary authority of the decision taken and state                     The appropriations entered in these chapters
    the reasons for maintaining these appropriations.                       may be used only by means of transfer in
                                                                            accordance with the procedure laid down in
     8.   The revenue and expenditure account shall                         Article 25.';
    show the automatic carryovers, the appropriations
    carried over by decision of the budgetary authority,
    those carried over by decision of the Commission              O OJ No L 379, 30. 12. 1978, p. 1, as last amended by Council
     and the appropriations made available again by the               Regulation (EEC) No 2626/84 of 15 September 1984 (OJ
    decision of the Commission after commitments have                 No L 247, 16. 9. 1984).
    been cancelled.'                                              (2) The following amounts applied when this Regulation
                                                                      entered into force:
                                                                      — German marks           0,719,
 4. Article 8 of the amended proposal:                                — Pounds sterling        0,0878,
                                                                      — French francs          1,31,
    paragraph 4 is deleted.                                           — Italian lira         140,00,
                                                                      — Dutch guilders         0,256,
                                                                      — Belgian francs         3,71,
 5. Article 9 of the amended proposal:                                — Luxembourg francs 0,14,
                                                                      — Danish kroner          0,219,
                                                                      — Irish pounds           0,00871,
    the final subparagraph of paragraph 2 (a) is deleted.             — Greek drachmas         1,15.
 ---pagebreak--- 16.10.87                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                  No C 278/7
     (b) The following paragraph 4a is added:                           (b) The fourth indent of paragraph 3 is replaced by
                                                                            the following:
          '4a.     Each part of the budget containing                        '— commitment appropriations           carried over
          operating appropriations must include a chapter                        under Articles 7 and 92 (4),';
          for provisional appropriations and, in a separate
          section, an overall reserve for meeting any                   (c) The first indent of paragraph 4 is replaced by the
          requirements which may arise as a result of the                   following:
          strict approach adopted when determining the                      '— the amount of appropriations carried over, a
          initial allocation.                                                    distinction being made between commitment
                                                                                 appropriations, payment appropriations and
          The appropriations entered in the overall reserve                      non-differentiated appropriations,'.
          may be used only by means of transfer in
          accordance with the procedure laid down in
                                                                   10. Article 97 of the amended proposal:
          Article 25.'
                                                                       The second paragraph of this Article is replaced by
 8. Article 25 of the amended proposal:                                the following:
                                                                        'In accordance with Article 4 (2) of this Regulation,
     Paragraph 8 is replaced by the following:                         the Member States shall place the necessary appro-
                                                                       priations for these operations at the disposal of the
                                                                       designated authorities and bodies.'
     '8.    The appropriations which may be transferred
    shall be as follows:
                                                                   11. Article 98 of the amended proposal:
     (a) non-differentiated appropriations for the current
          financial year;                                              This Article is replaced by the following:
     (b) non-differentiated appropriations carried over                '1.     Expenditure effected by authorities and bodies
          under Article 7 (1) (b);                                     under Article 4 of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 and
                                                                       reimbursed to the Member States by the Commission
     (c) commitment appropriations       for   the   current           under Article 5a (1) of the same Regulation shall be
          financial year;                                              booked to the accounts of a given financial year on
                                                                       the basis of the reimbursements made by the
                                                                       Commission during that financial year.
     (d) commitment appropriations carried over from
         the preceding financial year under Article 7 (2);
                                                                       2.     The reimbursement of expenditure incurred by
                                                                       the Member States and the detailed booking of that
    (e) payment appropriations (differentiated) for the                expenditure as commitments and payments to the
         current financial year;                                       relevant budget headings shall be carried out after
                                                                       examination of the statements sent in by the Member
    (f) payment appropriations (differentiated) carried                States in accordance with the provisions laid down
         over under Article 7 (2).                                     pursuant to Article 5 (3) of Regulation (EEC) No
                                                                       729/70.
    The transfers of carryovers under (b) must be
    proposed at the same time as the request for a                     3.     Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall apply without
    carryover is submitted to the budgetary authority.                 prejudice to the clearance of accounts provided for
                                                                       in Article 5 (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70.'
    The transfers of carryovers under (d) and (f) must be
    proposed at the same time as the budgetary authority           12. Article 99 of the amended proposal:
    is informed of the Commission's decision to carry
    over these appropriations.
                                                                       this Article is deleted.
    These proposals for transfers must be duly sub-
    stantiated.'                                                   13. Article 100 of the amended proposal:
                                                                       this Article is deleted.
9. Article 78 of the amended proposal:
                                                                   14. Article 101 of the amended proposal:
    (a) The last indent of paragraph 2 is replaced by the
         following:                                                    (a) In the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 'Article 5
         '— appropriations carried over under Article 7.';                  (2) (b)' is replaced by 'Article 5 (2)';
 ---pagebreak--- No C 278/8                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                 16.10. 87
    (b) In the final subparagraph of paragraph 1, footnote             '1.    Transfers from article to article and from item
         (1) is deleted;                                               to item within a chapter shall be made by
                                                                       Commission decision taken no later than 31
    (c) Paragraph 4 is replaced by the following:                      December.
         '4.    The outcome of the clearance decision, i.e.            The Commission shall inform             the  budgetary
         any difference which may exist between the total              authority of such transfers.
         expenditure booked to the accounts for a
         financial year pursuant to Article 98 and the                 2.    The Commission may make proposals to the
         total expenditure established by the Commission               budgetary authority, in accordance with Article 25,
         when clearing the accounts shall be booked,                   for transfers of appropriations from chapter to
         under a single article, as increased or reduced               chapter. The Council shall take a decision by
         expenditure for the financial year in which the               qualified   majority within four weeks,           after
         accounts are cleared. However, if the procedures              consulting Parliament. If the Council does not act
         required for this purpose — transfers or a sup-               within this time, the transfers of appropriations shall
         plementary or amending budget — cannot be                     be deemed to be approved.
         completed by the end of the year, the clearance
         decision shall be booked as soon as possible to               3.    The Commission shall take decisions on
         the following financial year.'                                transfers of appropriations between the EAGGF
                                                                       Guarantee chapters and the food aid chapter, where
15. Article 102 of the amended proposal:                               such transfers are made necessary by changes, in
                                                                       relation to the appropriations authorized, in the
    this Article is deleted.                                           parts of the expenditure chargeable to the respective
                                                                       chapters.
16. Article 103 of the amended proposal:
                                                                       The Commission shall inform the budgetary
    this Article is replaced by the following:                          authority 15 days before making such transfers.'