Press Release: EU Budget 2002 : expenditure 1.9 billion less than first planned

The European Commission adopted a letter of amendment to the 2002 budget on 30 October 2001 reducing by €1.9 billion the expenditure provided for in the preliminary draft budget which the Commission produced in May. The savings have been achieved as a result of revised estimates of expenditure on agriculture. In particular, the Commission no longer considers that there is a need for the €1 billion reserve that was originally intended to cover financial risks arising in the wake of the BSE crisis and foot-and-mouth disease, as the situation on the beef market appears to be less dramatic than expected in May, while €400 million has already been charged to the current budget for FMD. This means that the Commission's preliminary draft budget for 2002 is €4.4 billion less than the figure approved in the financial perspective for 2002.