European Parliament completed its first-reading vote on the 2008 draft budget

In adopting its first-reading of the 2008 EU budget, 25 October 2007, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) wanted the overall amount of payment appropriations to be higher than in the European Commission's preliminary draft budget (0.97%) and the Council's draft budget (0,95%), while not exceeding 0.99% of the EU's gross national income (GNI). They propose restoring the level of expenditure entered in the preliminary draft budget and making full use of the margins envisaged under the financial perspectives in several headings.