Cyprus Missing committee to receive about EUR2 mln from EU

The European Parliament plenary approved here today by a vast majority the EU 2009 budget. The level of payments is set at 116.096 billion euro which amounts to 0.894 percent of the European Union's Gross National Income (GNI). The level of commitments has been set at 133.845 billion euro, which is 1.03 percent EU GNI. EP President Hans-Gert Pottering signed off the official 2009 EU budget in Strasbourg.

The budget provides for an amount of approximately 2 million euro as a financial contribution for the work of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP).

Following the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, a Committee on Missing Persons was set up in the early 1980s to deal with this humanitarian issue. Hundreds of Greek Cypriots have been missing since 1974. Turkish Cypriots have been missing since the early 1960s, when intercommunal fighting broke out.

MEPs also approved the agreement with Council that will allow the payment of around 1 euro billion in farm aid to developing countries. Parliament successfully pressed for this instrument, known as the ''food facility'', to be financed mainly from 760 million euro of new money, with transfers from Heading 4 (external relations) being limited as far as possible. It was on this condition that MEPs agreed to spread the programme, originally earmarked for 2008/2009, into 2010.

For 2009, the European Parliament created a special budget heading of 568 million euro in commitments and rectified the structure of the expenditure, to take account of the amounts needed to finance this aid.

Parliament expressed its strong willingness to enter into negotiations with the Council on the basis of the Commission proposal for a revision of the financial frameworks 2007-13 for 5 billion euro in the framework of the proposed European Economic recovery plan. MEPs takes note in this regard of the Conclusions of the December 2008 European Council in that respect.