Budget Council (Hansard, 19 November 1993)

§ Sir John Cope

The Budget Council met in Brussels on 15 November. I represented the United Kingdom.

The Council considered the European Parliament's proposed changes to the draft budget which the Council established in July, Official Report, 26 July 1993, columns 596-97, and established a second reading draft budget for 1994. The Council reduced the total for commitments proposed by the European Parliament by 337 million ecu. As a result, the Council's second reading draft budget totals 73,112 million ecu—£56,089 million—in commitment appropriations. The own resources which would be required to finance the draft budget amount to 1.19 per cent. of Community GNP, compared with the own resources ceiling for 1994 of 1.20 per cent.

The Council also formally agreed the revised expenditure ceilings for 1994 which had been determined in the context of the new inter-institutional agreement—Official Report, 2 November 1993, column 113. The second reading draft budget is 374 million ecu in commitments, and 626 million ecu in payments, below the overall financial perspective ceilings. The following table summarises the second reading draft budget, with reference to the financial perspective:

	Financial Perspective	Draft Budget¹
	mecu	£ million²	mecu	£ million
Commitment appropriations
1. Common Agricultural Policy	36,465	27,975	36,465	27,975
2. Structural operations	23,176	17,780	23,176	17,780
3. Internal policies	4,370	3,353	4,193	3,217
4. External action	4,311	3,307	4,139	3,175
5. Administrative expenditure	3,634	2,788	3,610	2,769
6. Reserves	1,530	1,174	1,530	1,174
Total commitments	73,486	56,376	73,112	56,089
Total payment appropriations	70,352	53,972	69,727	53,492
¹Council's second reading draft budget established on 15 November.
² Throughout this reply the rate of £1=1.3035 ecu has been used—the rate notified in the Official Journal as prevailing on the last working day of last month, 29 October.

The European Parliament will consider the draft budget for 1994 at its plenary session in December. The 1994 Community budget is expected to be adopted by the Parliament on 16 December, to take effect from 1 January.

The Council did not take a formal vote on the draft budget, the presidency concluding that there was the necessary majority to establish the second reading draft budget for 1994.

The Budget Council also established a letter of amendment to its draft supplementary and amending budget for 1993. The main elements of the letter of amendment were a reduction in the total of customs duties in the 1993 budget, in keeping with the Commission's latest estimates; and a corresponding increase in member states' GNP contributions, so as to maintain the overall level of revenue.