The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Article 272 of the EC Treaty, Article 78 of the ECSC Treaty and Article 177 of the Euratom Treaty,

–  having regard to the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities, as last amended by Regulation (EC, ECSC, Euratom) No 762/2001 of 9 April 2001(1), and particularly Article 15,

–  having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2002, as finally adopted on 13 December 2001(2),

–  having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure(3),

–  having regard to the preliminary Draft Amending Budget No 2/2002 of the European Union for the financial year 2002, presented by the Commission on 27 February 2002 (SEC(2002) 222),

–  having regard to the Draft Supplementary and Amending Budget No 2/2002, established by the Council on 12 March 2002 (7033/2002– C5-0131/2002),

–  having regard to Rule 92 of and Annex IV to its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A5-0109/2002),

A.  whereas the Draft Supplementary and Amending Budget No 2/2002 aims to budget a preliminary amount of EUR 10 billion of the positive balance carried over from 2001 (the consequence of underspends relative to the amounts allowed in 2001) in addition to the EUR 1.2 billion of the positive balance already budgeted,

B.  whereas it also recalculates the financing of the 2002 budget on the basis of Council Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom of 29 September 2000 on the system of the European Communities' own resources(4) which entered into force on 1 March 2002,

C.  whereas Parliament adopted its position(5) on the proposal for the new own resources decision on 17 November 1999, only 3 months after having been consulted, in order to avoid delays in the entry into force of that decision,

D.  whereas the provisions of the new own resources decision were already applied by the Commission in calculating the revenue side of its 2002 Preliminary Draft Budget,

E.  whereas the Commission had to present Letter of Amendment 3/2002, shortly before Parliament's second reading of the 2002 budget, in order to revert to the provisions of the 1994 own resources decision for calculating the revenue side, because a number of Member States had not been able to ratify the new decision in time,

F.  whereas, under the new own resources decision, Member States are allowed to keep an increased percentage of traditional own resources in collection costs; whereas the SAB at hand takes this adjustment into account,

G.  whereas serious doubts exist as to whether this increase in retained collection costs – from 10% to 25% - is justifiable with respect to the real costs Member States incur in collecting the traditional own resources,

H.  noting that the definitive balance from 2001 will be presented in yet another SAB to be presented by the Commission in May 2002,

1.  Considers it inappropriate to unnecessarily increase the number of budgetary procedures for amending and rectifying budgets and asks the Commission to use its right of initiative in a more rational way;

2.  Notes that the first estimate of the surplus from the preceding financial year is extremely high; asks the Commission to present, by May 2002, an analysis of the causes of such an unacceptable situation in order to assess, budget line per budget line, whether responsibility can be attributed to Commission management, Member States or regional authorities and/or beneficiaries;

3.  Notes that, once again, the rigidity of the system excludes the possibility that unspent appropriations be used for other needs and urges the Commission to present some proposals in this respect;

4.  Considers that additional payment appropriations, within the limits of the existing ceiling, should now be made available for 2002 so as not to unwisely increase the balance of outstanding payments for the future (RAL); takes this view especially in light of the fact that the Commission has indicated that a difficult situation as regards payment appropriations can already be foreseen for the 2003 budget; calls on the Commission to present, with SAB No 3/2002, a thorough and more accurate assessment of the needs for 2002;

5.  Welcomes the budgetary decision to introduce amendments to the Council Draft Supplementary Amending Budget No 2/2002;

6.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution accompanied by the amendments to the Council and the Commission.

(1) OJ L 111, 20.4.2001, p. 1. (2) OJ L 29, 31.1.2002. (3) OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1. (4) OJ L 253, 7.10.2000, p.42 (5) OJ C 189,7.7.2000, p.72