§ Mr. Higginsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about the meeting of European Community Budget Ministers on 17 December, and on the decisions of the European Parliament on the 1981 Community Budget.
§ Mr. LawsonI represented Her Majesty's Government at a meeting of Budget Ministers on 17 December.
The meeting first adopted "A" points, including a Commission proposal for an "Open Transfer" of up to 102.5 meua (about £69 million) from any chapter in the Commission's section of the 1980 Budget where appropriations are available, to provide additional advance payments to the United Kingdom under the agreement of 30 May 1980. My reply to the question by my hon. Friend the Member for Knutsford (Mr. Bruce-Gardyne) on 18 December sets out the decisions subsequently taken in Brussels on this subject.
Ministers then considered the position that the Council should adopt on the increases sought by the European Parliament to the draft Supplementary Budget No. 2 for 1980, and the draft 1981 Budget. Discussion concentrated on the fact that the European Parliament has a large unused margin available to it to increase non-obligatory payment appropriations in the 1980 Budget, and that increases made to the 1980 Supplementary Budget would automatically augment the margin available to the European Parliament to increase the non-obligatory appropriations in the 1981 Budget.
In the light of the views expressed on behalf of the Council, the European Parliament, in its sitting of 18 December, voted amendments to the 1980 draft Supplementary Budget No. 2 totalling 266.4 meua for social fund payment appropriations, and also an additional 30 meua in commitment appropriations, and 24.5 meua in payment appropriations, in the 1981 draft Budget, divided between aid to Italy and a Budget item on new sources of energy.
Under the treaty, the Council has to react within 15 days to the European Parliament's amendments to the Supplementary Budget No. 2 for 1980. The action to be taken by the Council is now under consideration.