In its resolution of 27 June 1963, the European Parliament calls for an extension of its powers, particularly with regard to budgetary matters.

Article 203(4) of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community of 25 March 1957 stipulates that it is the Council which finally adopts the budget.

Treaty amending certain budgetary provisions of the Treaties establishing the European Communities and of the Treaty establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities, signed in Luxembourg on 22 April 1970.

Images of the signature of the Treaty amending certain budgetary provisions of the Treaties establishing the European Communities and of the Treaty establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities, which took place on 22 April 1970 in the Alcide de Gasperi building of the European Parliament in Luxembourg. The following were signatories to the Treaty: Pierre Harmel, Belgian Foreign Minister, Walter Scheel, FRG Foreign Minister, Maurice Schumann, French Foreign Minister, Aldo Moro, Italian Foreign Minister, Gaston Thorn, Luxembourg Foreign and External Trade Minister and H. J. de Koster, Netherlands Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

On 22 December 1969, the Council of Ministers of the Six decides to grant the European Parliament new budgetary powers.

In the early 1970s, the European Parliament becomes one of the two arms of the budgetary authority. The Council is the other arm. This photo illustrates the parliamentary debate on the Community draft budget for the financial year 1971 in the Chamber in Strasbourg.

On 25 March 1972, the Committee of experts, chaired by senior parliamentarian, Georges Vedel, submits to the European Parliament its report on the problem of the increased powers of the European Parliament (EP).

Pursuant to Article 203(7) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, since 1975, it is no longer the President of the Council but the President of the European Parliament who declares that the budget has been finally adopted.

Joint Declaration, issued on 4 March 1975, on the institution of a conciliation procedure between the Parliament and the Council, applicable to acts with significant financial implications.

Treaty amending certain financial provisions of the Treaties establishing the European Communities and of the Treaty establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities. On 22 July 1975, in Brussels, the Member States of the Europe of the Nine sign this Treaty which provides for the establishment of a Court of Auditors and strengthens the European Parliament’s budgetary powers. These reforms proved necessary following the implementation of the financial system of own resources, which established the financial autonomy of the European Communities.

Even though the European Parliamentary Assembly has only limited legislative powers, its budgetary powers impose on it a particular responsibility. In an article published in the French daily newspaper Le Monde on 6 November 1979, Pierre Bernard-Reymond, French Junior Foreign Minister, wishes to see the Assembly exercise its budgetary powers in a spirit of dialogue with the Council.

On 13 December 1979, the European Parliament exercises its power to reject the draft budget for the financial year 1980.

In an article in the December 1979 edition of the monthly publication 30 Jours d’Europe, Pascal Fontaine, senior lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, considers the significance and the results of the first elections to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage. He also refers to the issues addressed by the European Parliament and the fields in which the European Communities have been involved in the past year.

In June 1980, writing in the Dutch European Movement’s monthly publication Nieuw Europa, Piet Dankert, Vice-President of the European Parliament, comments on the role that Parliament plays in discussions regarding the approval of the European Communities’ budget.

Following Parliament’s rejection of the draft budget, the general budget of the Communities for the financial year 1980 was not adopted until 9 July 1980, after a long and difficult procedure.

Joint Declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 30 June 1982 on various measures to improve the budgetary procedure.

Article 272(8) of the Treaty establishing the European Community states that, subject to certain conditions, Parliament may reject the draft budget and ask for a new draft to be submitted to it. Parliament exercises this power to reject the 1985 draft budget.

Au printemps 1985, Francesco Forte, ministre italien chargé de la coordination des politiques communautaires, explique dans la revue Affari esteri les causes de l’épuisement du système de financement communautaire et du conflit qui oppose les deux branches du pouvoir budgétaire. Il propose également quelques pistes pour sortir de cette crise.

If, during the budgetary procedure, the Council fails to achieve the majority required for the adoption of the draft budget by the official deadline laid down in the EC Treaty, the European Parliament and/or the Commission may bring an action before the Court of Justice for failure to act. Parliament made use of this possibility on 18 December 1987 when the Council failed to adopt the draft budget for the financial year 1988.

In April 1989 in Strasbourg, the President of the European Parliament, Lord Henry Plumb, signs the budget of the European Communities in the presence of Martin Bangemann, Commissioner for relations with the Parliament (second from the left).

Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 June 1988 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure.

Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure.

Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure.

Diagram illustrating the course of the budgetary procedure as laid down by the pragmatic timetable.

In December 2000, Nicole Fontaine, President of the European Parliament, signs the 2001 budget of the European Union in Strasbourg, in the presence of Michaele Schreyer (first on the left), Member of the European Commission with special responsibility for the Budget Directorate-General.

In this interview, Paul Collowald, then Head of the Private Office of Pierre Pflimlin, President of the European Parliament, describes the discreet but significant role played by Pierre Pflimlin from 1984 to 1987 as President of the European Parliament and, in particular, his contribution to the realisation of the Parliament's budgetary powers when the Community budget was being finally adopted.

Article 272(7) of the Treaty establishing the European Community provides that, when the budgetary procedure has been completed, the President of Parliament declares the budget finally adopted.

Table showing an overview of the results of the 2006 budgetary procedure with regard to commitment appropriations by spending category and total appropriations for payments.

Interinstitutional Agreement on 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management.

On 17 May 2006, in Strasbourg, the representatives of the three institutions — Josep Borrell Fontelles of the European Parliament, Wolfgang Schüssel of the Council of the European Union and Dalia Grybauskaite, Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget — sign the Interinstitutional Agreement on budgetary discipline and sound financial management. This Agreement concerns, in particular, the financial programming framework for 2007–2013.

On 14 July 2006, in accordance with the annual budgetary procedure and the pragmatic timetable, the Council adopts at first reading the draft general budget for 2007.

This European Parliament press release, dated 26 July 2006, reviews the procedure for the adoption of the 2007 budget during the summer recess.

In this interview, Jean-Jacques Kasel, Director of the Budget in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities from 1981 to 1984, discusses the turbulent climate that prevailed at that time between the two branches of budgetary authority (the European Parliament and the Council) during each annual budgetary procedure.

In 2007, the European Commission publishes a brochure which provides answers to a number of questions on the budget and financial planning of the European Union.

Diagram illustrating the budgetary procedure provided for by Article 272 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.

Table showing the course of the annual budgetary procedure which follows the official timetable laid down in Article 272 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC).

Table showing the course of the annual budgetary procedure in accordance with the pragmatic timetable applied by the Council, the Parliament and the Commission since 1977.