CELEX: 51988PC0148
Language: en
Date: 1988-03-18
Title: 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

14. 4. 88                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No C 99/9
                                                               II
                                                       (Preparatory Acts)
                                                  COMMISSION
              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
                                                      COM(88) 148 final
                              (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 21 March 1988)
                                                         (88/C 99/07)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                           which have been released from commitment may be
                                                                   made available again only on the basis of specific criteria
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European              and only after a Commission decision;
Coal and Steel Community, and in particular Article 78h
thereof,
                                                                   Whereas the Financial Regulation must reflect the
                                                                   arrangements for financing the Guarantee Section of the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European              European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund to
Economic Community, and in particular Article 209                  take account of the amendments to Council Regulation
thereof,                                                           (EEC) No 729/70 O , as last amended by Regu-
                                                                   lation . . .;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 183
thereof,                                                           Whereas an appropriate provision must be inserted to
                                                                   allow a negative reserve to be entered in the budget to
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                 cover the discrepancies which inevitably arise during
                                                                   implementation between the total appropriations auth-
                                                                   orized and the total appropriations used,
Having regard       to   the   opinion   of   the   European
Parliament,
                                                                   HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Having regard to the opinion of the Court of Auditors,
Whereas the conciliation provided for in the Joint                                              Article 1
Declaration of 4 March 1975 of the European
Parliament, the Council and the Commission (') took                The Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 is hereby
place in a Conciliation Committee;                                 amended as follows:
Whereas the Financial Regulation of 21 December
 1977 (2), as last amended by Regulation (ECSC, EEC,                 1. In Article 1, the following paragraph 3a is inserted:
Euratom), must be amended to give effect to the
 conclusions of the Brussels European Council of 11 to 13                '3 a. The legal commitments entered into for
 February 1988 concerning stricter annual management of                         measures extending over more than one
 appropriations, the financing arrangements for the                             financial year shall contain a time limit for
 common agricultural policy and the possibility of                              implementation which must be specified to the
 entering a 'negative reserve' when the budget is estab-                         recipient in due form when the aid is granted.'
 lished;
                                                                      2. In Article 6, paragraph          2 is replaced   by the
 Whereas, in the interests of improved budgetary
                                                                         following:
 management and greater transparency of appropriations,
 differentiated appropriations should no longer be carried
 over automatically; whereas, however, the Commission                    '2.      In the case of budget headings where a
 should be empowered to effect some carryovers on the                    distinction is made between commitment appropri-
 basis of specific criteria; whereas certain appropriations              ations and payment appropriations, commitment
                                                                          appropriations and payment appropriations which
 (») OJ No C 89, 22. 4. 1975, p. 1.
 (2) OJ No L 356, 31. 12. 1977, p. 1.                               (») OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 13.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 99/10                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                    14. 4. 88
    have not been used at the end of the financial year                 financial year and assess, in the light of
    for which they were entered may, by decision of the                 requirements, the need for making the appropri-
    Commission taken not later than 15 February, be                     ations available again.
    carried over to the next financial year only, in
    accordance with the following criteria:                             The Commission shall take this decision by 15
                                                                        February of each financial year.
    (a) in the case of commitment appropriations:
                                                                        The Commission shall inform the budgetary
          — amounts which relate to operations for which                authority of the decision taken and state the reasons
              preliminaries have been virtually completed               for maintaining these appropriations.'
              at 31 December but for which accounting
              commitments have not yet been made: these             4. In Article 15, the following paragraph 4a is inserted:
              amounts must in principle be committed by
              31 March of the following year,                           '4 a. The chapter for provisional appropriations in
          — amounts which are necessary when the                                the Commission Section may include a negative
              Council has adopted a basic instrument                            reserve limited to a maximum of 200 million
              towards the end of the financial year and the                     ECU.
              Commission has been unable to commit the                          This reserve may include both appropriations
              appropriations provided for this purpose in                       for commitments and appropriations for
              the budget by 31 December;                                        payments.
    (b) in the case of payment appropriations:                                  This reserve shall be drawn upon by means of
          — amounts        needed    to     cover    existing                   transfer in accordance with the procedure laid
              commitments or relating to commitment                             down in Article 21.'
              appropriations carried over, when the appro-
              priations    provided   for     the   headings        5. In Article 73 (2), the final indent is replaced by the
              concerned in the budget for the following                 following:
              financial year do not cover requirements: in
              exercising its powers to implement the                    '— appropriations carried over under Articles 6 and
              budget the Commission shall, depending on                       88;'
              management requirements, endeavour to use
              first the appropriations authorized for the           6. In Article 73 (3), the fourth and fifth indents are
              current financial year and not use the appro-             replaced by the following:
              priations carried over until the former are
              exhausted.                                                 '— the commitment appropriations and payment
                                                                              appropriations carried over under Articles 6 and
    The Commission shall inform the budgetary                                  88;'
     authority of the decision taken and state the reasons
     for carrying over the appropriations.                           7. In Article 73 (4), the first indent is replaced by the
                                                                         following:
 3. In Article 6, paragraph         6 is replaced     by the             '— the amount of appropriations carried over, a
     following:                                                                distinction being made between commitment
                                                                               appropriations, payment appropriations and
     '6.    When commitments in budget headings where                          non-differentiated appropriations;'
     there is a distinction between commitment appropri-
     ations and payment appropriations are cancelled in              8. In Article 73 (4), the fifth indent is deleted.
     any financial year after that in which the
     commitment appropriations were entered in the                   9. In Article 88 (3), the final subparagraph is replaced
     budget, the appropriations concerned shall, as a rule,              by the following:
     lapse.
                                                                          'The payment appropriations represent the upper
     However, the commitment appropriation corre-                         limit of expenditure which may be paid or auth-
     sponding to the amount of the commitment                             orized for payment during each financial year to
     cancelled may, exceptionally, be made available                      cover commitments entered into during the current
     again, in accordance with the specific criteria laid                 year or earlier financial years.'
     down in the implementing measures provided for in
     Article 106, when it is essential to carry out the             10. In Article 88, paragraph         4 is replaced by the
     programme originally planned, unless the budget for                  following:
      the current financial year contains funds available
      for this purpose.                                                   '4.     The commitment and payment appropriations
                                                                          for this sector shall, as a rule, be carried over
      At the beginning of each financial year, the                        pursuant to Article 6 (2) of this Regulation in view
      Commission shall therefore examine the cancel-                      of the special requirements of these activities, in
      lations which have taken place in the previous                       order to:
 ---pagebreak--- H . 4. 88                              Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 99/11
    — maintain the continuity of budgetary execution                   statements referred to in Article 5 (1) (a) of Regu-
         from one year to the next,                                    lation (EEC) No 729/70 as described by imple-
    — safeguard the budgetary allocations which enable                 menting measures adopted pursuant to Article 5 (3)
         multiannual    programme      decisions    to   be            of that Regulation.
         respected.'                                                   2.    On the basis of the accounts or statements
                                                                       mentioned in paragraph 1 and of the findings of
11. Article 98 is replaced by the following:                           audits of documents and on-the-spot checks under
     'Article 98                                                       Article 9 of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70, the
                                                                       Commission, after consulting the Fund Committee
    Expenditure shall be booked to the accounts for a                  referred to in Article 13 of that Regulation, shall
    financial year on the basis of the advances paid by                clear the accounts not later than 15 September of the
    the Commission to the Member States during that                    second year following the financial year in question.
    year in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation
    (EEC) No 729/70, provided that notification of                     3.    The Commission shall transmit the clearance
    their commitment and authorization have reached                    decisions to the Member States and publish them in
    the accounting officer not later than 31 January of                the Official Journal of the European Communities.
    the following year.'                                               4.    The outcome of the clearance decision, i.e. any
                                                                       discrepancy which may exist between the total
12. Article 99 is replaced by the following:                           expenditure booked to the accounts for a financial
                                                                       year pursuant to Articles 97 and 98 and the total
     'Article 99
                                                                       expenditure recognized as allowable by the
    1.     The object of the clearance of the accounts                 Commission when clearing the accounts shall be
    provided for in Article 5 (2) (b) of Regulation (EEC)              booked, under a single article, as additional expen-
    No 729/70 shall be to determine the amount of                      diture, or a reduction in expenditure.'
    expenditure effected in each Member State during
    the financial year in question which may be                   13. In Article 100 (1), '1 April of the following financial
    recognized as being chargeable to the EAGGF.                       year' is replaced by '1 February of the following
                                                                       financial year'.
    Not later than 1 June of the year following the
    financial year in question Member States shall, for           14. In the second subparagraph of Article 101 (1) and
    the purpose of clearance of the accounts, send to the              the first subparagraph of Article 101 (2) '31 March
    Commission summary annual accounts for the                         of the following financial year' is replaced by '31
    financial year ended, amending where necessary the                 January of the following financial year'.
    monthly accounts. The summary accounts shall be
    accompanied by the appropriate reports drawn up by                                      Article 2
    the competent audit and control departments and
    dealing with the expenditure referred to in the              This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day
    Articles relating to expenditure covered by the               following that of its publication in the Official Journal of
    clearance.                                                    the European Communities.
    If the accounts of a paying agency or department
                                                                  It shall apply from .. . 1988.
    have not reached the Commission by 1 June, the
    Commission may clear the accounts of that agency              It shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable
    or department solely on the basis of the financial            in all Member States.