A4-0021/95

Decision on legal bases and maximum amounts

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the communication from the Commission to the Budgetary Authority concerning legal bases and maximum amounts (SEC(94)1106 - C4-0139/94),

-having regard to the deliberations of the Conciliation Committee on the Socrates and Youth for Europe programmes of 25 January 1995, as prepared by a trilogue between its 'explorers' and representatives of the Council and Commission,

-having regard to the Joint Declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 4 March 1975 on the institution of a conciliation procedure,,

-having regard to the Joint Declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 30 June 1982 on various measures to improve the budgetary procedure,

-having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure,

-having regard to Rule 139 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets and the opinion of the Committee on Social Affairs and Employment (A4-0021/95),

1.Approves the joint declaration annexed to this decision;

2.Instructs its appropriate committee, pursuant to Rule 163 of the Rules of Procedure, to bring forward at the earliest opportunity amendments to the Rules of Procedure, and in particular to Rules 53 and 54, to reflect the new situation concerning proposals with financial implications, created by this declaration;

3.Instructs its Secretary-General, in agreement with the Secretary-General of the Council, to have the results published in the Official Journal;

4.Instructs its President to forward this decision to the Council and the Commission.

ANNEX

DECLARATION BY THE THREE INSTITUTIONS

ON THE INCORPORATION OF FINANCIAL PROVISIONS

INTO LEGISLATIVE ACTS

The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission,

Having regard to the Joint Declaration of 30 June 1982, which states: 'In order that the full importance of the budget procedure may be preserved, the fixing of maximum amounts by regulation must be avoided, as must the entry in the budget of amounts in excess of what can actually be expended.',

Whereas, according to a statement annexed to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993, the budgetary procedure provisions should be reviewed 'at the Intergovernmental Conference scheduled for 1996 in order to achieve interinstitutional cooperation on a partnership basis',

hereby declare as follows:

1.Legislative acts concerning multiannual programmes adopted under the codecision procedure

These acts shall contain a provision in which the legislator shall establish the financial framework for the programme for its entire duration.

This amount shall constitute the principal point of reference for the budgetary authority during the annual budget procedure.

The budgetary authority, and the Commission when drawing up its preliminary draft budget, undertake not to depart from this amount unless new, objective, long-term circumstances arise for which an explicit and precise explanation is given.

2.Legislative acts concerning multiannual programmes not subject to the codecision procedure

These acts shall not contain an 'amount deemed necessary'.

Should the Council wish to include a financial reference, this shall be taken as illustrative of the will of the legislative authority and shall not affect the powers of the budgetary authority as defined by the Treaty. This provision shall be mentioned in every act which includes such a financial reference.

If the amount concerned has been the subject of an agreement under the conciliation procedure provided for in the Joint Declaration of 4 March 1975, it shall be considered a reference amount within the meaning of paragraph 1 of this declaration.

3.The financial statement provided for in Article 3 of the Financial Regulation shall reflect in financial terms the objectives of the proposed programme and include a schedule covering the whole period of the programme. It shall be revised, where necessary, when the preliminary draft budget is drawn up, taking account of the extent of implementation of the programme. The revised statement shall be forwarded to the budgetary authority together with the preliminary draft budget.