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SEMINAR 1998 |
THE ARKLETON TRUST
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[CONTENTS] [NEXT PAGE] |
3.3.2. Some Budgetary Issues (Agenda 2000)A few salient points concerning the forward budget of the EU are summarised in Table 1, derived from the Agenda 2000 document.Table 1: Overview of the new financial framework (1997 prices: bECU)
As can be seen from Table 1, total structural spending in the EU-15 is expected to decrease to 27.3 bECU, whereas total agricultural spending is projected to rise to 50.0 bECU. This includes 3 bECU for the three existing Accompanying Measures (agro-environment programme, farmer retirement, farm forestry), and 2 bECU for the 'new' rural development measure. Agricultural spending in the new member States and in pre-accession aid is expected to increase from 1.3 bECU in 1999 to 3.0 bECU (1997 prices) in 2006, much smaller than the sum allocated to structural operations. The 2 bECU allocated to the new rural development measure includes the existing Objective 5a outside Objective 1 regions, and Objective 5b, as well as the LFA compensatory allowances, totalling approximately 1.9 bECU. This means that there is, in effect, no new money for rural development, unless the expected 'room' within the agricultural guideline materialises and, further, that this is utilised for rural development. It is possible that the Rural Community Initiative following LEADER will be proposed as a horizontal measure, as indicated by the Commissioner at the November 1997 symposium '800 LEADERs give their views'. As the Community Initiative will be a 'single fund' initiative, it is probable that 'LEADER III' will be managed by DG VI. It is speculated that the budget will be between 2 to 3 bECU, which compares with 1.7 bECU for LEADER II. However, although the Commission services are keen to retain the basic principles of LEADER (bottom-up, integrated partnership approach, experimental nature) there will have to be some form of prioritisation in order to limit the number of actions and the area covered by them. Bringing together the different types of EU support for the accession countries of Central and Eastern Europe, total pre-accession support over the period 2000-2006 is proposed at 21 bECU at 1997 prices (3.5 bECU for structural assistance for agriculture; 7 bECU under the Cohesion fund, and 10.5 bECU under PHARE). In addition, 53.8 bECU is allocated for the new member States between 2002 and 2006, most of which is for structural operations. The total of 74.8 bECU for both of these items compares with the overall budget for 2000-2006 of 772.5 bECU at 1997 prices.
[The Funds] |