The European Parliament,

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

–   having regard to the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(1) and in particular Articles 37 and 38 thereof,

–   having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2003, as finally adopted on 19 December 2002(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 2/2003 to the budget for 2003, which the Commission presented on 31 March 2003 (SEC(2003) 423),

–   having regard to Draft Amending Budget No 2/2003, which the Council established on 16 June 2003 (10177/2003 - C5-0280/2003),

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

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A5-0241/2003),

A.   whereas the Preliminary Draft Amending Budget No 2/2002 aims to enter in the 2003 Budget of the Committee of the Regions (Section VII) an amount of EUR 350 000 in order to allow the participation of the 95 observers of the accession countries in the plenary sessions starting from July 2003,

B.   whereas this amount would correspond to a significant increase of the appropriations against Item 251 (Meetings expenses of representatives of the applicant countries), which would increase from EUR 70 000 to EUR 420 000

C.   whereas the Committee of the Regions did not consider it necessary to request these appropriations during the budgetary procedure for the financial year 2003,

D.   whereas there is some margin for manoeuvre for transfers within total 2003 Budget of the Committee of the Regions,

1.  Welcomes Council's modification of the Preliminary Draft Amending Budget No 2/2003,

2.  Has decided not to introduce budgetary amendments and to accept Council's Draft Amending Budget,

3.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the Committee of Regions.

(1) 1 OJ L 248, 16.9.2002. (2) 2 OJ L 54, 28.2.2003. (3) 3 OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1.