2. If necessary, Member States may be invited by the Commission to bring forward by one month the entry of resources other than the VAT-based own resource and the GNI-based own resource on the basis of the information available to them on the fifteenth of the same month.

The VAT-based own resource and the GNI-based own resource, taking into account the effect on these resources of the correction granted to the United Kingdom for budgetary imbalances and the gross reduction granted to Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden, shall, however, be recorded in the accounts as specified in the first subparagraph as follows:

Those include a proposal for the VII Own Resources Decision (ORD) that call for the abolition of the existing VAT own resource and its replacement by a new EU VAT resource that is depicted in detail in the proposal for a Council Regulation on the methods and procedures for making available the own resource based on the VAT, which is the subject of the present report.

D. whereas all Parliament's efforts to use the actual VAT returns to determine the assessment base to be used for the VAT resource ("returns method") instead of the harmonised base calculated by applying an average weighted rate on the total net revenue ("revenue method") were in vain, with the result that the VAT resource changed from a genuine own resource with a strong direct link to European citizens to a purely statistical device for calculating ...[+++]a contribution of a Member State,

Whereas the European Council of 24 and 25 March 1999 invited the Commission to submit, before 1 January 2006, a report reviewing the operation of the own resources system and, in particular, the effects of enlargement on the financing of the budget; whereas the report should also review the correction of the budgetary imbalances granted to the United Kingdom as well as the granting to Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden of the reduction in the financing of the budgetary imbalances in favour of the United Kingdom; whereas the report should also address the feasibility of creating new autonomous own resources as well as arrangem ...[+++]ents for the possible introduction of a fixed uniform rate applicable to the VAT assessment bases; whereas the Commission will submit that report before 1 January 2004; whereas, on the basis of that report, the Commission will submit, before 1 January 2005, a proposal for a Council decision which will replace this Decision on 1 January 2007; whereas that decision is to include provisions concerning the replacement of the VAT resource by new, autonomous own resources; whereas those new resources should be directly connected with ordinary citizens and not increase the tax burden they bear; whereas, furthermore, provisions should be included for the gradual phasing-out of the compensatory mechanism established in favour of the United Kingdom; whereas, it should enter into force simultaneously with the beginning of the new financial perspective from 2007 with a view to improving consistency between the revenue and expenditure sides of budgetary policy;

– (IT) Mr President, while the Member States' budgets are preparing, at the different levels of government, for the euro, at last, to become everyday, familiar currency, in itself a major, unifying development which is due to happen very shortly, we are concerning ourselves with technical points such as, today, the use of ESA 95 in the determination of Member States’ payments to the VAT-based own resource.