New budget proposal for the European Community

European Community (EC) commissioner Christopher Tugendhat presented the new budget proposals to the European Parliament in Strasbourg Feb. 14. Two months ago a defiant Parliament rejected the first attempt to agree on a 1980 budget.

Mr. Tugendhat said he was "responding to the views of Parliament" in the new proposals, which he said reflect the commission's "wish to build up" Parliament's authority.

The new budget would reduce the proportion of EC spending on the controversial agriculture sector from last year's 66.9 percent to 63 percent for 1980.

Mr. Tugendhat pointed out that when Parliament rejected the earlier budget, "what the Parliament faced in December was a commission proposal which had been drastically altered by the council."

But the proposals must go before the EC Council of Ministers, where national governments will fight to restore the agricultural funds cut by the commission proposals.