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2008 budget: other sections

2007/2019B(BUD)

Before proceeding with the 2nd reading of the draft budget for 2008, the Council held a conciliation meeting with a delegation from the European Parliament under the Inter-institutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 on budgetary discipline and sound financial management.

The European Parliament delegation was led by Mr Reimer BÖGE, Chairman of the Committee on Budgets, and comprised: Mr Kyösti VIRRANKOSKI, Rapporteur for the 2008 Budget (Commission), Mr Ville ITÄLÄ, Rapporteur for the 2008 Budget (Other institutions), Mr Salvador GARRIGA POLLEDO, Ms Ingeborg GRÄSSLE, Mr Laszlo SURJAN, Mr Michael GAHLER, Mr Margaritis SCHINAS, Ms Catherine GUY-QUINT, Mr Vladimir MANKA, Mr Thijs BERMAN, Mr Louis GRECH, Mr Joan CALABUIG, Mr Jan MULDER, Mr Esko SEPPÄNEN.

The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed on the following:

  • to accept Preliminary Draft Amending Budget No. 7/2007 as amended by the Commission on 12 November 2007;
  • to accept Letter of Amendment No. 2/2008 as proposed by the Commission;
  • to fix the amount of the CFSP budget at EUR 285.25 million in commitment appropriations for 2008 and to agree on the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument for this purpose for an amount of EUR 70 million;
  • to fix the total amount for payment appropriations (absolute figures) for the 2008 budget at EUR 120 346.76 million, including the payment appropriations in 2008 for the Galileo project and a reduction of EUR 300 million in appropriations regarding clearance of accounts in comparison to the PDB;
  • to agree on a joint statement on the financing of the European GNSS programmes (EGNOS-GALILEO) and on the financing of the European Institute of Technology;
  • to agree on a joint statement concerning transfer of appropriations related to Galileo and the Joint Undertakings (ARTEMIS, Clean sky, ENIAC and IMI);
  • to agree on a joint statement on the procedure to implement the agreement reached on 23 November 2007.

These amounts shall be revised through the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2007–2013 in accordance with the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006.

As regards the other sections of the budget, the European Parliament and the Council agreed to maintain the Draft Budget established by the Council with regard to administrative expenditure (Heading 5 of the Financial Framework), apart from the European Parliament amendments to its own section of the budget ("Gentlemen's Agreement") and to the European Economic and Social Committee, which were accepted.