Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 10 Dec 2003

Vol. 576 No. 6

Written Answers. - EU Summits.

John Bruton

Ceist:

130 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance the position he is taking in the Intergovernmental Conference on the question of whether the European Parliament should have a deciding role on the EU budget, as recommended by the Convention, or just a consultative role as favoured by some Ministers for Finance. [29987/03]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy):

The Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs will be representing Ireland at the Intergovernmental Conference. However, I can indicate to the Deputy the current position.

At the moment, the annual EU budget is effectively divided into two substantial sections; first, compulsory expenditure, that is, CAP guarantee expenditure; second, non-compulsory expenditure, this includes the allocations for Structural Funds, EU internal policies and EU external policies. The allocations for compulsory expenditure are decided by Council acting on a proposal from the Commission, after the European Parliament has been consulted. The allocations for noncompulsory expenditure are effectively subject to the final decision of the Parliament.

The European Convention's recommended text for a European constitution proposes the effective abolition of the distinction between compulsory and non-compulsory expenditure in the annual budgetary procedure. While the draft constitution still requires that provision be made for legally compulsory expenditure, the Convention text in effect proposes that Parliament has the final say on the whole annual EU budget.

There is a broad view, which I share, among Finance Ministers that it would be more reasonable and appropriate that a more equal balance be struck between the roles of Council and Parliament. They considered that Council and Parliament should have co-equal decision-making powers on the annual budget. In the eventuality of Parliament and Council being unable to reach agreement on a particular budget item, the lower amount of expenditure of the relevant budget item proposed by either Council or Parliament would prevail. Furthermore, if the amount in the previous year's budget were higher than the lowest amount for the relevant budget item proposed by either Parliament or Council, it would prevail.

This is not a reduction in Parliament's role but rather putting Council's role on to the same level as that of Parliament. Given that Council represents the member states which have to pay and account to their electorates and national Parliaments for the contributions necessary to fund the annual budget, it seems all the more reasonable that Council should have a role equivalent to that of Parliament.