The Council established the draft EU 15 budget for the financial year 2004 for the other budgetary sections (all except the Commission). The budget is set forth in the present volume of the draft budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2004. The Council used the preliminary draft budget of the European Communities EU 25 for 2004, submitted by the Commission, as the basis for establishing the draft budget. In this context, the Council also agreed on a position for EU 25 with a view to political agreement with the European Parliament by the end of the budgetary procedure.
The Council's scrutiny of the institutions' administrative expenditure was based on the following principles:
- leaving an adequate margin within the ceiling under heading 5 of the financial perspective, in the interests of sound financial management; this margin should incorporate an amount for the budget to be provided by the European Data Protection
Supervisor;
- making allowance, in expenditure, for the impact of the revision of the Staff Regulations, as entailed by the political agreement reached on 19 May 2003;
- limiting the increase in current expenditure to 2,7%, compared with 2003, this being the maximum rate of increase for the EU 15;
- accepting exceptional expenditure put forward by institutions, such as the move to the Berlaymont or the replacement of members of the Commission and members of the Court of Justice;
- not accepting the creation of new posts or upgrading of posts for ordinary purposes, save in exceptional cases; should any upgrading of posts be allowed for other institutions in the subsequent budgetary procedure, the case of the requests made by the Council in its own estimate would have to be reexamined;
- accepting all the new posts requested for enlargement in respect of language requirements; the minor reductions in other posts requested were mainly for C and D posts; the period for which posts approved have been budgeted for is 6 months;
- accepting most of the appropriations requested for enlargement;
- accepting the pensions appropriations, after making allowance for the impact of the revision of the Staff Regulations;
- placing in reserve the appropriations intended for subsidies under the former Chapter A-30, in the absence of legal bases.
As far as each institution is concerned, the following can be noted:
- European Parliament (Section I) : under the "gentlemen's agreement", the Council included the European Parliament estimate in the draft general budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2004 without any changes; the estimate was EUR 144,35 million (13,28%) up on the 2003 budget.
- Council (Section II) : for its section of the budget for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 524,81 million, including expenditure on enlargement; this takes in expenditure on publication of the Community acquis, as well as EUR 13,12 million for the FADO project and the replacement of the Cortesy and ESDP Net communications networks. The FADO project will involve EUR 2,12 million in appropriations for 2004, a figure set to remain more or less unchanged in future. For Cortesy and ESDP Net, EUR 11 million will be appropriated for 2004, with EUR 35 million estimated to be needed in 2005. For 2006, however, expenditure is forecast at only EUR 10 million.
The funding of special representatives, apart from the mission expenses of Council officials assigned to them, will be transferred as from 1 January 2004 to the Commission budget, under policy area 19: external Relations, CFSP activity (EUR 3,1 million).
As regards staffing, for its section of the budget, the Council agreed to the creation of 20 new posts for the Secretariat's new tasks other than enlargement.
- Court of Justice (Section IV) : for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 220,26 million, including expenditure on enlargement, a EUR 69,66 million (46,26%) increase on the 2003 budget.
As regards staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 504 new posts, namely all 246 new language-related posts another 143 new posts and 115 temporary posts.
The Council did not approve the creation of 102 enlargement posts, nor the 46 non-enlargement posts requested. All the Court's requests for upgrading or conversion of posts were rejected.
- Court of Auditors (Section V) : for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 96,25 million, including expenditure on enlargement, a EUR 19,17 million (24,87%) increase on the 2003 budget.
As regards staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 126 new posts for enlargement, namely all (45) language-related posts requested by the institution (10 LA5 and 35 LA7) and 81 other new posts. However, it did not approve the request for the creation of 10 posts for this purpose, nor that for a B5 post for non-enlargement purposes. All other upgrading or conversion of posts was rejected.
- Economic and Social Committee (Section VI) : for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 103,78 million, including expenditure on enlargement, a EUR 22,62 million (27,86%) increase on the 2003 budget. As regards staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 110 new posts for enlargement, namely all (71) language-related posts requested by the institution and 39 other new posts. However, it did not approve the request for the creation of 6 posts for this purpose, nor that for 1 post for non-enlargement purposes. The Council rejected the requests for upgrading or conversion of posts (26).
- Committee of the Regions (Section VII) : for 2004, the Council approved an overall allocation of EUR 60,01 million, including expenditure on enlargement, a EUR 21,01 million (53,87%) increase on the 2003 budget.
As regards staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 162 new posts for enlargement, namely 107 language-related posts and 55 other posts. The Council rejected the requests for upgrading or conversion of posts (24).
- European Ombudsman - (Section VIII) : the Council allocated a total amount of EUR 5,44 million for 2004, including expenditure on enlargement, an increase of EUR 1 million (22,52 %) over 2003.
On staffing, the Council accepted the creation of 3 new posts under current Expenditure. The conversion without cost of one temporary C5 into one permanent C5 was accepted. The posts requested for enlargement were accepted.�