[autom.vertaling] De lange weg aan begrotingsovereenkomst begint nu (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The long battle to agree the EU's budget for the period starting in 2007 begins tomorrow (28 October) when the European Commission will hold a seminar on the issue.

The purpose of the seminar will be to produce a communication by late-November, setting out how the future budget should be structured. This should lead to a proposal in May or June 2004.

This will then have to be agreed by the European Council and the European Parliament in an "inter-institutional agreement" and it is hoped that agreement will be reached before 2005.

The multi-annual budget - known in EU jargon as the "financial perspectives" - will set out how much Member States contribute to the EU and what the main priorities for spending will be.

But agreeing these financial perspectives has traditionally been a difficult matter, and this round of negotiations looks to be, if anything, even more controversial than usual.

The seminar tomorrow will focus on the length of time the new budget will run for, the maximum amount Member States can contribute - the ceiling - and the amount Member States get back in return, the so-called rebates.

There will also be discussion over the budgetary "headings". The EU budget is currently organised under headings such as internal policies, external policies, agriculture etc. There will be a debate over whether these should be changed.

It will be the first time that the Commission will be working with actual figures. Previously, the discussion has been more conceptual.

Political hot potato

The budget discussions are always a political hot potato for Member States. When the last set of financial perspectives were agreed - at the Berlin summit in 1999 - there was a row between the French, Germans and British over farm subsidies and the British rebate - where Britain gets about three billion euro a year back from the EU.

This time the political rows are more likely to focus on the Constitution and the future EU states.

Some leaders have said that discussions over the budget could be used as bargaining chips during the tough negotiations over the EU constitution. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder recently said that the two issues "are two sides of the same coin" and French President Jacques Chirac is thought to agree with him.

Many observers believe that Germany - the largest contributor to the EU budget - could threaten to reduce its high level of funding for the Union unless it gets its way on matters relating to the Constitution.

Don't forget the future EU states

Some future EU states are known to be upset that negotiations on the new budget - which will affect them - will be carried out before they become members of the club. The Commission's proposal may be discussed as early as this December during a formal debate on the Constitution, but any decisions will come into force in 2007 - over two and a half years since after the new Member States join the EU.

So the future states will have to adhere to a budget without having been involved in the negotiations from the very beginning.

However, a Commission spokesperson stressed that they will be involved in the Council meetings that will eventually "clear" the budget.

Or the candidate countries

There is another issue with Romania and Bulgaria. The Commission promised these two countries that the figures will be on the negotiating table in January next year in order for these countries to conclude the pre-accession negotiations with the EU in 2004, as foreseen.

The other key political issue relates to structural funds which will involve member states with poor regions - such as Spain, Portugal and parts of eastern Germany - in the political machinations surrounding the discussions.

At present, regions with a GDP of less than 75 percent of the EU average qualify for EU funding - so-called category one regions.

When accession is complete, the average GDP of the EU will drop - because the new Member States are relatively poorer. This means that some regions will no longer qualify for category one funding.