STRASBOURG, Oct 24: The European Parliament approved Thursday a first reading of the European Union’s 2003 draft budget, giving priority to plans for adding 10 more countries to the Union in 2004.

The budget, the Union’s last in its present 15-member form, is dominated by issues connected with enlargement, such as development aid to incoming members, and increasing the Union’s administrative capacities.

Parliament deputies approved payment credits of 99.9 billion euros ($97.2bn), or 1.04 per cent of the Union’s gross domestic product, close to a ceiling fixed at 1.27 per cent of GDP. That would represent an increase from 2002 of about 4.5 per cent.—AFP