§ Mr. RedwoodTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total budget expenditure for the EEC, European Coal and Steel Community and Euratom for 1988; and what was the total budget in its first full year of operation.
§ Mr. BrookeIn the ECSC's first year of activity (1952) its budget was 4.6 mecu. In 1968 that part of its budget covering non-operating (that is, largely administrative) expenditure was merged with the EC/Euratom budget, leaving the balance of its budget, covering operating expenditure (mainly aid and restructuring), to stand as a separate budget. In 1968 the ECSC budget, as redefined, amounted to 21.2 mecu; in 1988 it amounted to 562 mecu (£390.4 million1).
The budget for the EEC and Euratom in their first year of activity (1958) amounted to 11 mecu. In 1968 the EC and Euratom budget was merged with the non-operating part of the ECSC budget to form the so-called general budget. In that year the general budget amounted to 1,561.3 mecu; in 1988 it amounted to 43,820.4 mecu (£30,431.1 million1).
1 Converted at the Commission's current budget exchange rate of £1 = 1.439421 ecu.