Regulation 2002/1605 - Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the EC - Main contents

official title

 

Legal instrument	Regulation
Number legal act	Regulation 2002/1605
Original proposal	COM(2000)461
CELEX number i	32002R1605

Avis juridique important

|

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities

Official Journal L 248 , 16/09/2002 P. 0001 - 0048

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002

of 25 June 2002

on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities

CONTENTS

>TABLE>

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 279 thereof,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 183 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament(2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Court of Auditors(3),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(4),

Whereas:

• (1) 

  Since times have changed considerably since the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(5) was adopted, in particular as a result of a financial perspective forming a framework for the development of the budget, developments in the institutional structure and a series of enlargements, that Financial Regulation has been substantially amended several times. In order to take account, in particular, of the requirements of simplification in legislative and administrative matters and the tightening up of management of Community finances, the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 should be recast in the interests of clarity.

• (2) 

  This Regulation should be confined to stating the broad principles and basic rules governing the whole budgetary sector covered by the Treaty, while the implementing provisions should be moved to a Regulation on rules for the implementation of this Regulation in order to produce a better hierarchy of rules and make the Financial Regulation easier to read. The Commission should therefore be authorised to adopt the implementing rules.

• (3) 

  The establishment and implementation of the budget should respect the four fundamental principles of budgetary law (unity, universality, specification, annuality), and the principles of budget accuracy, equilibrium, unit of account, sound financial management and transparency.

• (4) 

  This Regulation should reassert those principles and keep exceptions to a strict minimum subject to strict conditions.

• (5) 

  As regards the principle of unity, this Regulation should specify that it also applies to operational expenditure on implementing the European Union Treaty provisions on the common foreign and security policy and on police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, where this is charged to the budget. The principle of unity and budget accuracy means that all Community revenue and expenditure, and that of the Union, when this is charged to the budget, are entered in the budget.

• (6) 

  As regards the principle of universality, the practices of repayment of payments on account and reuse should be discontinued; in some cases they should be replaced by assigned revenue and ways of reconstituting decommitted appropriations. These amendments do not affect the special rules applicable to the Structural Funds.

• (7) 

  As regards the principle of specification, the institutions need to have some degree of management flexibility for transfers of appropriations. This Regulation should allow integrated presentation of the allocation of financial and administrative resources by purpose. The procedures for transferring appropriations should also be harmonised for all the other institutions so that transfers of staff and operating appropriations are a matter for each institution. As regards transfers of appropriations concerning operational expenditure, the Commission may make transfers between...

This text has been adopted from EUR-Lex.

This page is also available in a full version containing the summary of legislation, de geconsolideerde versie, the legal context, de Europese rechtsgrond, other dossiers related to the dossier at hand and finally the related cases of the European Court of Justice.