18.12.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities L 326/1 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) COUNCIL REGULATION (EC, ECSC, EURATOM) No 2673/1999 of 13 December 1999 amending the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 279 thereof, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, and in particular Article 78h thereof, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 183 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (%), Having regard to the opinions of the Court of Auditors (%), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (%), After consulting the Committee of the Regions, Whereas: (1)  the conciliation provided for in the Joint Declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commis- sion of 4 March 1975 (°) has taken place; (2) it is necessary to amend the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (°), hereinafter referred to as the ‘Financial Regulation’, in order to take account of the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which repealed Protocol 16 to the Treaty on European Union on the common organisational structure for the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions; (3)  like the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, the Ombudsman is treated by Article 22(5) of the Financial Regulation (7), for the purposes of that Regulation, as an institution, and is in receipt of increasingly large amounts of financial (") OJ C 149, 15.5.1998, p. 21 and OJ C 396, 19.12.1998, p. 18. () O] C 313, 12.10.1998, p. 4. () O] C 7, 11.1.1999, p. 1 and O] C 154, 1.6.1999, p. 5. () O] C 284, 14.9.1998, p. 54. () O] C 89, 22.4.1975. (®) O] L 356, 31.12.1977, Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC, ECSC, Euratom) No 2779/98 (O] L 347, 23.12.1998, p. 3). Consolidated version appears in O] C 80, 25.3.1991, p. 1. () In the version thereof resulting from Regulation (ECSC, EC, Euratom) No 1923/94 (O] L 198, 30.7.1994, p. 4). resources, which ought to be subject to the same budg- etary procedure and the same rules as the other Community bodies which are treated as institutions by the Financial Regulation; (4)  specific sections should therefore be created within the general budget of the European Union for the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the Ombudsman and the provisions of the Financial Regulation concerning them should be adjusted, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 The Financial Regulation is hereby amended as follows: 1. In point 3 of Article 7, ‘the Ombudsman’ shall be inserted after ‘the Committee of the Regions’. 2. Article 12 shall be amended as follows: (a) the first subparagraph shall be replaced by the following: ‘The European Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the Ombudsman shall, each year before 1 July, draw up an estimate of their revenue and expenditure for the following year.’; (b) the second subparagraph shall be deleted. 3. In Article 14 the first subparagraph shall be replaced by the following: ‘The Commission may, on its own initiative or if requested by the European Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions or the Ombudsman, each in respect of its own section, present to the Council a letter of amendment to the preliminary draft budget on the basis of new information which was not available at the time the preliminary draft was established.’