MEPs this month voted (after their first reading) for a draft EU budget for 1999 of €98.6 billion in commitments. The budget comprises four main headings: €40.5 billion for the Common Agricultural Policy; €39 billion for structural and regional funds; €6.4 billion for other internal programmes (for example, education and employment); and €6.8 billion going on overseas development aid. The remainder covers administrative costs and goes to reserves.
The budget vote came against a background of strict controls on public expenditure in the run-up to the introduction of the Euro. Barbara Dohrkop Dohrkop (E, PES) voiced the concerns of many MEPs who wished to ensure that funds allocated were actually spent, especially in the regional and social domain. They therefore voted to create a special reserve to monies that might be unused to be held for release at a later date.
Mrs Dohrkop Dohrkop explained that Parliament had sought to secure a budget which met the needs of the citizens. So MEPs had voted to increase the budget for the environment from €137 million to €178.4 million; to increase the budget for education programmes (for example, the Leonardo student exchange scheme) from €305.2 million to €441.7 million. The budget now goes to Council for a second reading before returning to Parliament for a final reading in December after which, if Parliament approves it, it will be signed into law by the President.
In an attempt to put the whole budget debate into perspective, Joe McCartin (Connacht/Ulster, EPP) pointed out that the amount under discussion came to just about 1 per cent of public spending and, as he put it, would not have any dramatic effect on the stock market. He too was of the view that while the CAP provided vital help to Europe's six million farmers with a grant on average of around €5,000 per farm, it had not solved agriculture's problems.
As to the "Juste Retour" or adjusting receipts to contributions, Mr McCartin felt that it was important to point out that certain major contributors stood to gain a considerable amount from, for example, enlargement. The way forward, he felt, was for a modest increase in the budget to promote new policies which would be visible and meaningful to the man in the street.
A case in point, he said, was the €100 million for the peace programme in Northern Ireland, which had not only proved extremely successful but had made the EU visible amongst sectors of the population who were previously not enthusiastic about EU membership.