Annex PARTA-1 — INTRODUCTION

The general budget of the European Union is the instrument which sets out and authorises the total amount of revenue and expenditure deemed necessary for the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community for each year.

The budget is established and implemented in compliance with the principles of unity, budgetary accuracy, annuality, equilibrium, unit of account, universality, specification, sound financial management and transparency.

• The principle of unity and the principle of budgetary accuracy mean that all Community revenue and expenditure and that of the European Union when it is charged to the budget must be incorporated in a single document.

• The principle of annuality means that the budget is adopted for one budgetary year at a time and that both commitment and payment appropriations for the current budgetary year must, in principle, be used in the course of the year.

• The principle of equilibrium means that forecasts of revenue for the budgetary year must be equal to payment appropriations for that year: borrowing to cover any budget deficit which may arise is not compatible with the own resources system and will not be authorised.

• In accordance with the principle of unit of account, the budget is drawn up and implemented in euro and the accounts shall be presented in euro.

• The principle of universality means that total revenue is to cover total payment appropriations with the exception of a limited number of revenue items which are assigned to particular items of expenditure. All revenue and expenditure is entered in full in the budget without any adjustment against each other.

• The principle of specification means that each appropriation must have a given purpose and be assigned to a specific objective in order to prevent any confusion between appropriations.

• The principle of sound financial management is defined by reference to the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

• The budget is established in compliance with the principle of transparency, ensuring sound information on implementation of the budget and the accounts.

The budget presents appropriations and resources by purpose (activity‑based budgeting), with a view to enhancing transparency in the management of the budget with reference to the objectives of sound financial management and in particular efficiency and effectiveness.

The expenditure authorised by the present budget totals EUR 129 167,49 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 121 582,36 million in payment appropriations, representing growth rates of 2,05 % and 5,27 % respectively by comparison with the 2007 budget.

Budgetary revenue totals EUR 121 582,36 million. The uniform rate of call for the VAT resource is 0,3311 % whilst that for the GNI resource is 0,6538 %. Traditional own resources (customs duties, agricultural duties and sugar levies) account for 15,42 % of the financing of the budget for 2007. The VAT resource accounts for 15,71 % and the GNI resource for 67,70 %. Other revenue for this financial year is estimated at EUR 1 429,56 million.

The own resources needed to finance the 2008 budget account for 0,95 % of the total GNI, thus falling below the ceiling of 1,24 % of GNI calculated using the method set out in Article 3(1) of Council Decision 2000/597/EC, Euratom of 29 September 2000 on the system of the European Communities’ own resources (OJ L 253, 7.10.2000, p. 42).

The tables below set out step by step the method used to calculate the financing of the 2008 budget.

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