Key Benefits:
President of the Republic,
On the report of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign and European Affairs,
Seen them Articles 52 to 55 of the Constitution ;
Vu la Act No. 2008-570 of 19 June 2008 authorizing the approval of the decision of the Council of the European Union on the system of the own resources of the European Communities, adopted in Luxembourg on 7 June 2007;
Vu le Decree No. 53-192 of 14 March 1953 amended on the ratification and publication of international commitments undertaken by France;
Vu le Decree No. 2002-1372 of 18 November 2002 issuing the decision of the Council of 29 September 2000 on the system of the own resources of the European Communities,
Decrete:
The decision of the Council of the European Union on the system of the own resources of the European Communities, adopted in Luxembourg on 7 June 2007, will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
The Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign and European Affairs are responsible for the execution of this decree, which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.
D E C I S I O N D U C O N S E I L
RESOURCES SYSTEM
EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
The Council of the European Union,
Considering the Treaty establishing the European Community, including article 269;
Considering the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, including its Article 173;
Considering the Commission ' s proposal;
Considering the opinion of the European Parliament (1);
Having regard to the opinion of the Court of Auditors (2);
Considering the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (3);
Considering the following:
(1) The European Council, held in Brussels on 15 and 16 December 2005, concluded, inter alia, that clean resource arrangements should be guided by the general objective of fairness. Therefore, these arrangements should ensure, in accordance with the relevant conclusions of the 1984 European Council of Fontainebleau, that no member State should bear excessive budgetary burden in relation to its relative prosperity. It is therefore necessary to introduce provisions concerning certain Member States in particular.
(2) The Community's own resource system must provide sufficient resources for the orderly development of Community policies, subject to the need for strict budgetary discipline.
(3) For the purposes of this decision, gross national income (GNI) should be defined as the annual GNI at market prices as determined by the Commission under the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (hereinafter referred to as "EC 95"), in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No. 2223/96 (4).
(4) In view of the passage from SEC 79 to SEC 95 for the purpose of budget and clean resources and in order to maintain the level of financial resources available to the Communities, the Commission recalculated, in accordance with Article 3, paragraphs 1 and 2, of Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom of the Council of 29 September 2000 on the system of the European Communities's own resources (5), the cap of the clean resources and the ceiling of the two-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-of-of-of-out-out-out-of-of-out-out-of-of-out-out-out-out-of-of-of-out-out-out-out-out-out-out-of-of-out-out-out-out- The Commission communicated the new ceilings to the Council and the European Parliament of 28 December 2001. The clean resource ceiling was set at 1.24 per cent of the total GNI of the Member States at market prices and a ceiling of 1.31 per cent of the total GNI of the Member States was set for credits for commitments. The European Council of 15 and 16 December 2005 concluded that these ceilings should be maintained at current levels.
(5) In order to maintain the level of financial resources available to the Communities, these ceilings expressed as a percentage of the GNI should be adjusted for changes in SEC 95 resulting in substantial changes in the GNI level.
(6) As a result of the transposition in European Union law of agreements arising from the multilateral trade negotiations of the Uruguay Round, there is no more significant difference between agricultural rights and customs duties. It is therefore necessary to delete this distinction in the area of the budget of the European Union.
(7) For the sake of transparency and simplicity, the European Council of 15 and 16 December 2005 concluded that the uniform rate of appeal of the value added tax (VAT) must be frozen at 0.30 per cent.
(8) The European Council of 15 and 16 December 2005 concluded that Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden must receive reduced VAT appeal rates during the period 2007-2013 and that the Netherlands and Sweden must benefit from gross reductions in their annual contributions calculated on the basis of the GNI during the same period.
(9) The European Council of 15 and 16 December 2005 concluded that the correction mechanism in favour of the United Kingdom must be maintained, as well as the reduction of the funding of this correction to be enjoyed by Germany, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands. However, after a phased-in period between 2009 and 2011, the United Kingdom must participate fully in the financing of enlargement costs, except for direct agricultural payments and market-related expenditures as well as the portion of the rural development expenditures from the " Guarantee" section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EFOGA). The calculation of the correction in favour of the United Kingdom must therefore be adjusted by the progressive exclusion of expenses in the Member States that joined the EU after 30 April 2004, except for the above-mentioned expenditures on agriculture and rural development. The additional contribution of the United Kingdom as a result of the reduction in apportioned expenditures should not exceed €10.5 billion at 2004 prices during the period 2007-2013. In the event that there would be a further expansion before 2013, with the exception of the membership of Bulgaria and Romania, the amount must be adjusted accordingly.
(10) The European Council of 15 and 16 December 2005 concluded that the provisions of Article 4, point (f), second paragraph, of Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom, which provide for the exclusion of annual pre-accession expenses in candidate countries from the calculation of the correction for the United Kingdom, must cease to apply at the end of 2013.
(11) The European Council of 15 and 16 December 2005 invited the Commission to undertake a comprehensive and comprehensive review, covering all aspects of European Union expenditure, including common agricultural policy (CAP), as well as resources, including compensation for the United Kingdom, and to report in 2008-2009.
(12) Provisions should be made to clarify the transition from the system introduced by Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom to the system resulting from this decision.
(13) The European Council of 15 and 16 December 2005 concluded that this decision must take effect on 1 January 2007,
ARRESSED TO THE SUBSTANCES PROVISIONS, OF WHICH I RECOMMEND THE ADOPTION TO MEMBER STATES:
Article 1
Clean resources are allocated to the Communities to ensure the financing of the European Union budget in accordance with the terms set out in the following articles, in accordance with Article 269 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (hereinafter referred to as the "EC Treaty") and Article 173 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (hereinafter referred to as the "Euratom Treaty").
The European Union's general budget is, without prejudice to other revenues, fully financed by the Community's own resources.
Article 2
1. Constituent resources from the European Union's general budget include revenues from:
(a) levies, bonuses, additional or compensatory amounts, amounts or additional elements, of the common tariff tariff and other duties established or to establish by the institutions of the Communities on trade with non-member countries, tariffs on the goods under the treaty, which have expired, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, as well as dues and other duties provided for in the joint sugar organization;
(b) without prejudice to paragraph 4, second paragraph, of the application of a uniform rate valid for all Member States to the haromonized plate of the VAT, as determined by Community rules. The attitude to be taken into account does not exceed 50% of the GNI of each Member State, as defined in paragraph 7;
(c) without prejudice to paragraph 5, second paragraph, of the application of a uniform rate — to be determined in the context of the budgetary procedure, taking into account all other revenues — to the sum of the GNIs of all Member States.
2. In addition, make up specific resources included in the European Union's general budget revenues from any new taxes that would be instituted, within the framework of a common policy, in accordance with the EC Treaty or the Euratom Treaty, provided that the procedure of Article 269 of the EC Treaty or Article 173 of the Euratom Treaty was completed.
3. Member States shall hold 25 per cent of the amounts referred to in paragraph 1 (a) for collection costs.
4. The uniform rate referred to in paragraph 1 (b), set at 0.30 per cent.
For the period 2007-2013 only, the call rate for the TVA resource is 0.225 per cent for Austria, 0.15 per cent for Germany and 0.10 per cent for the Netherlands and Sweden.
5. The uniform rate referred to in paragraph 1, point (c), is applicable to the GNI of each Member State.
For the period 2007-2013 only, the Netherlands receives a gross reduction of 605 million euros in its annual contribution calculated on the basis of the GNI, and Sweden has a gross reduction of 150 million euros in its annual contribution calculated on the basis of the GNI at the prices of 2004. These amounts are adjusted to current prices by the application of the GDP deflator for the most recent European Union expressed in euros, as determined by the Commission, which is available at the time of the preparation of the preliminary budget. These gross reductions are granted after the calculation of the correction to the United Kingdom and its funding referred to in Articles 4 and 5 and have no impact in this regard.
6. If, at the beginning of the fiscal year, the budget has not been adopted, the existing VAT and GNI call rates remain applicable until the new rates come into force.
7. For the purposes of this decision, "NB" means the NBR for the year at market prices, as determined by the Commission under SEC 95, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 2223/96.
In the event of amendments to SEC 95 resulting in substantial changes to the NBN as determined by the Commission, the Council, acting unanimously on the Commission's proposal and after consultation with the European Parliament, decides whether these amendments apply for the purposes of this decision.
Article 3
1. The total resources allocated to the Communities to cover annual credits for payments shall not exceed 1.24 per cent of the total GNI of the Member States.
2. The total annual appropriation for commitments included in the European Union's general budget must not exceed 1.31 per cent of the total amount of GNI of the Member States.
An orderly relationship is maintained between credits for commitments and credits for payments in order to ensure their accounting and to allow compliance with the ceiling referred to in paragraph 1 for the following years.
3. In the event of changes to SEC 95 resulting in substantial changes in the level of the GNI applicable for the purposes of this decision, the Commission recalculates the limits of the credits for payments and commitments set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 on the basis of the following formula:
1.24 % (1.31 %) ×
RNBt―2 + RNBt―1 + current SEC RNBt
RNBt―2 + RNBt―1 + RNBt SEC modified
t being the last full year for which data pursuant to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No. 1287/2003 of 15 July 2003 on the harmonization of gross national income at market prices ("RB Regulation") (1) are available.
Article 4
1. A correction of budgetary imbalances is granted to the United Kingdom.
This correction is established:
a) by calculating the difference in the previous year between:
― the percentage share of the United Kingdom in the sum of uncut VAT plates and,
― the percentage share of the United Kingdom in total spending,
(b) by multiplying the difference thus obtained by the total allocated expenditure;
(c) by multiplying the result obtained in point (b) by 0.66;
(d) by subtracting from the result obtained in point (c) the effect for the United Kingdom of the change to the valued VAT and the payments referred to in section 2, paragraph 1, point (c), that is, the difference between:
― what the United Kingdom should have paid for the amounts financed by the resources referred to in section 2, paragraph 1, (b) and (c), if the uniform VAT rate had been applied to uncut plates and,
- payments made by the United Kingdom in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 1, (b) and (c),
(e) by subtracting from the result obtained in point (d) the net earnings of the United Kingdom resulting from the increase in the percentage of the resources referred to in article 2, paragraph 1, point (a), retained by the Member States to cover the collection and related costs;
(f) each enlargement of the European Union, by calculating an adjustment to be made on the result referred to in (e) in order to reduce compensation, thus ensuring that expenditures not compensated prior to enlargement remain after enlargement. This adjustment is made by reducing the total apportionment of the amount equivalent to the annual pre-accession expenditures in the candidate countries. All amounts thus calculated are returned to the following fiscal years and are adjusted annually by applying the GDP deflator for the most recent available European Union, expressed in euros, as determined by the Commission. This point ceases to apply from the correction to be budgeted for the first time in 2014;
(g) by adjusting the calculation, by reducing the total amount of expenditure apportioned in the total amount of expenditure apportioned in the Member States that have acceded to the European Union after 30 April 2004, except for direct agricultural payments and market-related expenditures as well as part of the rural development expenditures from the Guarantee section of the FEOGA.
This reduction is gradually implemented according to the following schedule:
| 2009 | 20 |
| 2010 | 70 |
| 2011 | 100 |
Article 5
1. The financial burden of correction shall be borne by the other Member States in the following manner:
(a) the distribution of the charge shall first be calculated on the basis of the respective share of the Member States in the payments referred to in article 2, paragraph 1, point (c), since the United Kingdom is excluded and without taking into account the gross reductions in contributions based on the GNI granted to the Netherlands and Sweden referred to in article 2, paragraph 5;
(b) then adjusted to limit the financial contribution of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden to a quarter of their normal contribution resulting from this calculation.
2. The correction is granted to the United Kingdom by reduction of its payments resulting from the application of Article 2, paragraph 1, point (c). The financial burden assumed by other Member States is added to the payments resulting from the application, for each Member State, of Article 2, paragraph 1, point (c).
3. The Commission shall make the necessary calculations for the purposes of section 2, paragraph 5, section 4 and this section.
4. If, at the beginning of the fiscal year, the budget was not adopted, the correction granted to the United Kingdom and the financial burden assumed by the other Member States, in the last definitive budget, remain in effect.
Article 6
Revenues under Article 2 are indistinctly used to finance all expenses in the European Union's general budget.
Article 7
The potential surplus of Community revenues over all actual expenditures over a fiscal year is deferred to the next year.
Article 8
1. The specific resources of the Communities referred to in Article 2, paragraph 1, point (a), shall be collected by the Member States in accordance with the national legislative, regulatory and administrative provisions, which are, where appropriate, appropriate to the requirements of Community regulation.
The Commission shall conduct, at regular intervals, a review of the national provisions made available to it by the Member States, notify the Member States of the modifications that it considers necessary to ensure the conformity of the said provisions with Community regulations and reports to the budgetary authority.
The Member States shall make the resources provided for in Article 2, paragrahe 1, point (a), (b) and (c), available to the Commission.
2. In accordance with the procedure provided for in article 279, paragraph 2, of the EC Treaty and article 183 of the Euratom Treaty, the Council shall determine the necessary provisions for the implementation of this decision as well as those relating to the monitoring of recovery, the provision of the Commission and the payment of revenues referred to in articles 2 and 5.
Article 9
As part of the comprehensive and comprehensive review, covering all aspects of EU expenditures, including the CAP, as well as resources, including compensation for the United Kingdom, to be reported in 2008-2009, the Commission undertakes a general review of the clean resource systems.
Article 10
1. Subject to paragraph 2, Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom is repealed as of 1 January 2007. Any reference to Decision 70/243/ECSC, EEC, Euratom of the Council of 21 April 1970 on the replacement of the financial contributions of the Member States by resources specific to the Communities (1), Decision 85/257/EEC, Euratom of the Council of 7 May 1985 on the system of the own resources of the Communities (2), Decision 88/376/EEC, Euratom of the Council of 24 June 1988 on the system of the own resources of the EC
2. Articles 2, 4 and 5 of Decisions 88/376/EEC, Euratom, 94/728/EC, Euratom and 2000/597/EC, Euratom remain applicable to the calculations and adjustments of revenues derived from the application of a uniform rate valid for all Member States to the plate of the VAT determined in a uniform manner and limited to a rate between 50 and 55 per cent of the GNP or the GNI of each Member State, according to the
3. The Member States continue to retain 10% of the amounts referred to in Article 2, paragraph 1, point (a), which should have been released by the Member States before 28 February 2001, in accordance with the applicable Community rules.
Article 11
This decision is notified to the Member States by the Secretary-General of the Council and published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The Member States shall promptly notify the Secretary General of the Council of the fulfilment of the procedures required by their respective constitutional rules for the adoption of this decision.
This decision comes into force on the first day of the month following receipt of the last notification referred to in the second paragraph.
It takes effect 1 January 2007.
Article 12
This decision is published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Done in Luxembourg on 7 June 2007.
By the Council,
The president,
Mr. Glos
Done in Paris, March 11, 2009.
Nicolas Sarkozy
By the President of the Republic:
The Prime Minister,
François Fillon
Minister for Foreign Affairs
and European,
Bernard Kouchner
