CELEX: 51987PC0420
Language: en
Date: 1987-07-31
Title: OWN RESOURCES DECISION

8.9.87                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 241/3
                                                               II
                                                       (Preparatory Acts)
                                                 COMMISSION
                     Proposal for a Council Decision on the system of the Communities' own resources
                                                      COM(87) 420 final
                               (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 4 August 1987)
                                                        (87/C 241/03)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                           ceiling on resources must comprise the own resources
                                                                   established under this Decision and the contributions
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European              provided for in Council Regulation (EEC) No . . . on the
Economic Community, and in particular Article 201                  correction of budgetary imbalances; whereas the
thereof,                                                           progression towards this ceiling must be gradual, with
                                                                   intermediate annual limits being set and used as the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European              reference for each year's maximum payment appropri-
Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 173             ations;
thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                 Whereas observance of this ceiling is based on main-
                                                                   tenance of a strict relationship between commitment
Having regard      to  the   opinion    of  the    European        appropriations and payment appropriations throughout
Parliament,                                                        the period 1988/92, with the total allocation of
                                                                   commitment appropriations being kept below 1,4 °/o of
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                   G N P in 1992;
Social Committee,
Whereas the Council Decision of 7 May 1985 on the                  Whereas, subject to this ceiling and with a view to
Communities' system of own resources ( l ) hereinafter             matching the resources paid by each Member State more
referred to as 'the Decision of 7 May 1985', raised to             closely with its ability to contribute, the composition of
1,4 % the limit on the rate applied to the uniform value           Community own resources must be enlarged and a
added tax base previously set at 1 % by the Council                greater degree of flexibility introduced; whereas it is
Decision of 21 April 1970 on the replacement of                    necessary for this purpose:
financial contributions from Member States by the
Communities' own resources (2), hereinafter referred to            — to include in Community own resources the customs
as 'the Decision of 21 April 1970'; whereas the 1,4 °/o                duties on products coming under the Treaty
limit is no longer sufficient to cover all Community                   establishing    the    European     Coal    and    Steel
expenditure;                                                           Community,
Whereas the Community must be provided with stable
and guaranteed financial means to be able to operate the           — to fix at 1 % the rate to be applied to each Member
common policies, improve the present situation and                     State's uniform VAT base,
ensure a sufficiently lengthy period of budgetary
security;                                                          — to introduce an additional type of resource to
                                                                       balance budget revenue and expenditure, the base for
Whereas the signature of the Single European Act opens                 calculation being the difference between total G N P
up new possibilities to the Community; whereas Article                 and the total actual VAT bases in the Member States,
8A of the Treaty establishing the European Community
provides for the completion of the internal market by              — to provide for the possibility of new resources
31 December 1992;                                                      connected with economic and tax harmonization in
                                                                       the Community;
Whereas, on this date, the Community will have to have
available a maximum amount of resources corresponding
to 1,4 % of the Member States' total G N P ; whereas this          Whereas the European Council of 29 and 30 June 1987
                                                                   stipulated that final approval of this Decision should take
O OJNoL128, 14.5. 1985, p. 15.                                     place before the end of 1988 with retrospective effect
O OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 19.                                  from 1 January 1988;
 ---pagebreak--- No C 241/4                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                     8.9. 87
Whereas provisions must be laid down to cover the                  2. The Council, acting unanimously on a proposal
changeover from the system introduced by the Decision              form the Commission and after consulting the European
of 7 May 1985 to that arising from this Decision,                  Parliament, may amend the rate fixed in point 1 (c).
HAS LAID DOWN THESE PROVISIONS, WHICH IT                           3. The rate fixed in point 1 (d) shall be applied to
RECOMMENDS TO THE MEMBER STATES FOR                                each Member State's additional base representing the
ADOPTION:                                                          difference between its gross national product at market
                                                                   prices and its base referred to in point 1 (c) above.
                         Article 1
The Communities shall be allocated resources of their              4. If, at the beginning of the financial year, the budget
own in accordance with the following Articles in order             has not been adopted, the previous rate applying to the
to ensure that their budget is in balance.                         additional base shall remain applicable until the entry
                                                                   into force of the new rate.
The budget of the Communities shall, irrespective of
other revenue, be financed entirely from the
Communities' own resources.                                        5. By way of derogation from paragraph 1 (c) and (d)
                                                                   if, on 1 January of the financial year in question, the
                                                                   rules determining the uniform basis for assessing value
                         Article 2                                 added tax have not yet been applied in all Member
1. Revenue from the following shall constitute own                 States, the financial contribution to the budget of the
resources entered in the budget of the European                    Communities to be made by a Member State not yet
Communities:                                                       applying this uniform basis shall be determined according
                                                                   to the proportion of its gross national product at market
                                                                   prices to the sum total of the gross national product of
(a) levies, premiums, additional or compensatory
                                                                   the Member States at market prices. The balance of the
    amounts, additional amounts or factors and other
                                                                   budget shall be covered by revenue accruing from value
    duties established or to be established by the
                                                                   added tax and the additional base in accordance with
    institutions of the Communities in resepct of trade
                                                                   paragraph 1 (c) and (d) and collected by the other
    with non-member countries within the framework of
                                                                   Member States. This derogation shall cease to have
    the common agricultural policy, and also contri-
                                                                   effect as soon as the rules for determining the uniform
    butions and other duties provided for within the
                                                                   basis for assessing value added tax are applied in all
    framework of the common organization of the
                                                                   Member States.
    markets in sugar;
(b) Common Customs Tariff duties and other duties
    established or to be established by the institutions of                                  Article 3
    the Communities in respect of trade with non-
                                                                   1. The total amount of own resources assigned to the
    member countries and customs duties on products
                                                                   Communities may not exceed:
    coming under the Treaty establishing the European
    Coal and Steel Community;
                                                                   — 1,20 % of the Community's total GNP in 1988,
(c) the application of a rate of 1 % to the assessment
    basis for value added tax which is determined in a
    uniform manner for Member States according to                  — 1,22 % of the Community's total GNP in 1989,
    Community rules;
(d) the application of a rate — to be determined under             — 1,24 % of the Community's total GNP in 1990,
    the budgetary procedure in the light of the total of
    all other revenue — to an additional base
    representing the difference between:                           — 1,27 °/o of the Community's total GNP in 1991,
    — the sum of the gross national product at market
        prices and                                                 — 1,30 % of the Community's total GNP in 1992.
    — the sum of the bases referred to in point (c) of all
        member States;
                                                                   These annual ceilings are within an overall limit on own
(e) any new charges introduced within the framework of             resources of 1,4 % of GNP.
    a common policy, subject to the procedure laid down
    in Article 201 of the Treaty establishing the
    European Economic Community or in Article 173 of               2. Observance of this ceiling shall be based on a strict
    the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy             relationship between commitment appropriations and
    Community having been followed.                                payment appropriations throughout the period 1988/92.
 ---pagebreak---  8.9.87                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 241/5
This shall involve an orderly progression in commitment            the additional resource referred to in points (c) and (d)
 appropriations culminating, in 1992, in a total allocation        of Article 2 (1) of this Decision.
of commitment appropriations of less than 1,4 % of
GNP.
                                                                                             Article 8
3. The ceiling of 1,4 % shall apply until this Decision             1. Member States shall be notified of this Decision by
is amended. Before the end of 1991, the Commission                 the Secretary-General of the Council of the European
shall present a report on the operation of the own                 Communities; it shall be published in the Official Journal
resources system and the application of budgetary                  of the European Communities.
discipline.
                                                                   Member States shall notify the Secretary-General of the
                                                                   Council of the European Communities without delay of
                          Article 4
                                                                   the completion of the procedures for the adoption of this
The revenue referred to in Article 2 shall be used                 Decision in accordance with their respective
without distinction to finance all expenditure entered in          constitutional requirements.
the budget of the Communities. This provision shall be
without prejudice to the treatment of contributions by             This Decision shall enter into force on the first day of
certain Member States to supplementary programmes                  the month following receipt of the last of the
provided for in Article 130 L of the Treaty.                       notifications referred to in the second subparagraph. It
                                                                   shall take effect on 1 January 1988.
                          Article 5
                                                                   2. (a) Subject to points (b) and (c) below, the Decision
Any surplus of the Communities' own resources over the                     of 7 May 1985 shall be repealed on the same date.
actual expenditure during a financial year shall be                        To the extent necessary, any reference to the
carried over to the following financial year.                              Decision of 21 April 1970 or to the Decision of
                                                                           7 May 1985 shall be understood as referring to
                          Article 6                                        this Decision.
1. The Community resources referred to in Article 2                   (b) Article 3 of the Decision of 7 May 1985 shall
shall be established and collected by the Member States                    continue to apply to the calculation and
in accordance with national provisions imposed by law,                     adjustment of revenue accruing from the
regulation or administration action, which shall, where                    application of rates to the uniform assessment
necessary, be adapted to meet the requirements of                          basis for value added tax in 1987 and earlier
Community rules. Member States shall make these                            years.
resources available to the Commission.                                     For 1988 the correction in favour of the United
                                                                           Kingdom and the shares for financing it shall be
2. Without prejudice to the auditing of accounts                           calculated in accordance with points (b) and (c)
provided for in Article 206a of the Treaty establishing                    of Article 3 (3) of the Decision of 7 May 1985.
the European Economic Community, or to the                                 The corresponding amounts shall be assigned to
inspection arrangements made pursuant to Article 209 (c)                   the amounts due from each Member State in
of that Treaty, the Council shall, acting unanimously on                   respect of the additional own resource referred to
a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the                    in point (d) of Article 2 (1) of this Decision and,
European Parliament, adopt the provisions necessary to                     where necessary, to the amounts due in respect of
apply this Decision and to make possible the inspection                    the VAT own resources referred to in point (c) of
of the collection, making available to the Commission                      Article 2 (1). When Article 2 (5) has to be
and payment of the revenue referred to in Article 2.                       applied, the value added tax payments shall be
                                                                           replaced by financial contributions in the calcu-
                                                                           lations referred to above for any Member State
                          Article 7
                                                                           concerned. This system shall also apply to the
The mechanism for the graduated refund of own                              payments of adjustments of corrections for
resources accruing from value added tax or GNP-based                       previous years.
financial contributions introduced for the Kingdom of
Spain and the Portuguese Republic up to 1991 by                       (c) Article 4 (2) of the Decision of 7 May 1985 shall
Articles 187 and 374 of the Act concerning the                             continue to apply to the financial contributions
conditions of accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the                    needed to finance the completion of the sup-
Portuguese Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties                    plementary programme for the operation of the
shall apply to the own resources accruing from VAT and                     HFR reactor 1984/87.