WARMELINK harged to the accounts of the Member States. 18 The procedure to adopt the European budget is rather complicated. The budget s com ing into being requires the Commission as well as the Council and the uropean Parliament to be involved, however, the atter two bodies actually make up the budgetary authority. The Commission consists of independent members, appointed by the Member States governments by common consent, and its responsibility has been restricted to dra wing up a prelim inary draft budget. Afterthat, acting by a qualified majority, the Council, in which each Member State represented by a Minister, establishes the draft budget and places it before the European Parliament. The European Parliament s approval of the draft budget shall have the effect of the budget stand ing as finally adopted. However, the European Parliament may decide to 1)modify the draft budget by way of amendments, or 2)propose modifications with regard to the so-called compulsory expenditure. In either case the draft budget will be retumed to the Council. The Council may, acting by a qualified majority, overrule any of the amendments adopted by the European Parliament by modify ing them. The Parliament in turn may amend or reject these modifications, provided it acts by a majority of its Members and three-fifths of the votes cast Accordingly, the European Parliament eventually decides on the level of The Council s powers with regard to the parliamentary proposals modify ing the compulsory expend iture are dependent on the question whether or not these proposals will lead to an increase in expenditure. If there is no increase in expenditure, the Council can only reject the proposed modifications acting by a qualified majority. Where, on the other hand, the proposed modifications have the effect of increasing the amount of expenditure, the Council has to act by a qualified majority accepting the proposals, if they are to modify the budget. The European Parliament has no authority to overrule the Council s judgement with regard to the ompulsory expenditure, apart from the power to reject the draft bud get completely. if there are important reasons. This is only possible if its Members act by a majority and two-thirds of the votes cast 20 A typical feature of the procedure is that establishing the budget is part of a more comprehensive set of decision-making regarding the finances of the Community and the Union, both on a national and a European level. The financal frameworks conceming budgetary decision-making have, to a large extent, already been determined before the reading of the draft budget. Firstly, the scope of decision-making has been curtailed as a result of the stipulation that the budget should be balanced. I Secondly, prior to esta blishing the budget, both the revenue and the expend iture of the Community are limited, which considerably reduces the elbowroom of the bodies involved 18. See Article 28 ofthe Treaty on European Union. 19 Cf. Article 205 ofthe EC Treaty This possibility was made use of with regard to the 1980 and 1985 draft budget and the 1982 draft supplementary budget Article 268 ofthe EC treatyWARMELINK 10 charged to the accounts of the Member States.18 The procedure to adopt the European budget is rather complicated. The budget s coming into being requires the Commission as well as the Council and the European Parliament to be involved, however, the latter two bodies actually make up the budgetary authority. The Commission consists of independent members, appointed by the Member States governments by common consent, and its responsibility has been restricted to drawing up a preliminary draft budget. After that, acting by a qualified majority, the Council, in which each Member State is represented by a Minister, establishes the draft budget and places it before the European Parliament.19 The European Parliament s approval of the draft budget shall have the effect of the budget standing as finally adopted. However, the European Parliament may decide to 1) modify the draft budget by way of amendments, or 2) propose modifications with regard to the so-called compulsory expenditure. In either case the draft budget will be returned to the Council. The Council may, acting by a qualified majority, overrule any of the amendments adopted by the European Parliament by modifying them. The Parliament in turn may amend or reject these modifications, provided it acts by a majority of its Members and three-fifths of the votes cast. Accordingly, the European Parliament eventually decides on the level of non-compulsory expenditure. The Council s powers with regard to the parliamentary proposals modifying the compulsory expenditure are dependent on the question whether or not these proposals will lead to an increase in expenditure. If there is no increase in expenditure, the Council can only reject the proposed modifications acting by a qualified majority. Where, on the other hand, the proposed modifications have the effect of increasing the amount of expenditure, the Council has to act by a qualified majority accepting the proposals, if they are to modify the budget. The European Parliament has no authority to overrule the Council s judgement with regard to the compulsory expenditure, apart from the power to reject the draft budget completely, if there are important reasons. This is only possible if its Members act by a majority and two-thirds of the votes cast.20 A typical feature of the procedure is that establishing the budget is part of a more comprehensive set of decision-making regarding the finances of the Community and the Union, both on a national and a European level. The financial frameworks concerning budgetary decision-making have, to a large extent, already been determined before the reading of the draft budget. Firstly, the scope of decision-making has been curtailed as a result of the stipulation that the budget should be balanced.21 Secondly, prior to establishing the budget, both the revenue and the expenditure of the Community are limited, which considerably reduces the elbowroom of the bodies involved. 18. See Article 28 of the Treaty on European Union. 19. Cf. Article 205 of the EC Treaty. 20. This possibility was made use of with regard to the 1980 and 1985 draft budgets and the 1982 draft supplementary budget. 21. Article 268 of the EC Treaty