The committee adopted the report by Margie SUDRE (EPP-ED, F) amending the proposal under the consultation procedure:
- Article 299(2) of the Treaty (on specific measures for the outermost regions) should be taken as the legal basis for the proposal rather than Article 37 (agricultural policy);
- provision should be made for appropriations to be revised on an annual basis, taking account of the rates of utilisation of appropriations in each of the regions concerned, "without prejudice to the key for distributing the financial amounts available under this Regulation for the following years, and after verifying that the possibility for modulation within regions belonging to the same Member State, or among species, has not resulted in the full use of the amounts available";
- to keep administrative costs down and make the decision-making process as effective as possible, the Commission should be assisted by an advisory committee rather than a management committee;
- given the exceptional nature of the proposed measures, the Commission should report to the budgetary authority by 1 May each year (i.e. before the first reading of the budget) on the progress made in the implementation of the scheme. �