European Communities Council's Budget Committee Meeting in Lisbon

The delegates will be welcomed by the President of the ECOFIN/Budget Council, Emanuel Augusto Santos, Deputy Minister of Finance for Budget, and at the beginning of the work session will be provided with the programme of the meeting. The delegates, budget councillors of the Permanent Representatives of the 27 member states of the European Union, will be invited to a formal lunch following the meeting.

The Budget Committee is made up of representatives of all of the member states of the European Union. This delegation shall be accompanied by representatives of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities, and of the respective legal services, as well as by representatives of the Directorate General of the Budget of the Commission of the European Communities.

As the name implies, this committee is responsible for the preparation of the positions of the Council, bearing in mind the negotiations with the European Parliament and the Commission, throughout the entire annual budget procedure. Its activities are carried out under the terms of the rules set out in the Treaties, which govern the activities of the European Communities, in the Interinstitutional Agreement on budgetary discipline and good financial management and in the Financial Regulations.

The recommendations of the committee are subject to confirmation by the Committee of Permanent Representatives. Conciliation mechanisms with the European Parliament have been provided for until a decision of definitive agreement is reached, at the end of the year, on all of the financing to be included in the Budget (in this case relative to 2008).

Among the more important tasks of this committee are the evaluation and recommendation of Council positions relative to financial legislation under the scope of the budget and the annual reports of the Court of Auditors in matters of the control of the implementation of the annual budgets, which precede the decision of attribution of the annual acquittance by the European Parliament to the European Commission.

The aforementioned informal meeting shall be held under the scope of the current Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second half of 2007.1 The system of rotating half-yearly presidencies of the Council set up the practice of meeting informally in the country holding the presidency, thus constituting an opportunity to meet informally once per half year and also to welcome and inform the group of colleagues of the specificities of the various member states.

The Portuguese Presidency has chosen one of its priorities as the theme for the work session: “The programmes for the new period 2007-2013 of the Structural Fund, of the Cohesion Fund and under the scope of rural development”.

In effect, on 13th July last, the Portuguese Presidency, in conciliation with the European Parliament, succeeded in having a set of four joint declarations adopted, with a view to reinforcing the good financial management of EU institutions, including the aforementioned joint declaration highlighting the great political importance which the Council and the EP attribute to the need for rapid approval by the Commission of the operational projects and programmes presented by the member states in these areas for the new period 2007-2013; proposing, to avoid the delays which occurred in the implementation of the programmes during the preceding period 2000-2006, to proceed with:

- Strict and regular controls of the approval process for operational projects and programmes and of projects for ensuring greater efficiency and good management, for which it is deemed essential that the Commission continue to regularly supply specific control elements during the budget procedure – which is precisely what the Directorate General of the Budget shall do on 6 September, in Lisbon, presenting the latest available detailed information to the delegates of the Budget Committee.

However, the case of the Budget Committee is an exception given that Portugal took on the organisation of meetings of this group at the beginning of May, following the presentation of the proposed Budget for 2008 by the Commission -EU news