Report on Council's position on Draft amending budget No 3/2012 of the European Union for the financial year 2012, Section III – Commission

(11113/2012 – C7-0147/2012 – 2012/2071(BUD))

This report, by Francesca BALZANI (S&D, IT), was written for and adopted by the Committee on Budgets. It calls for the European Parliament to amend the Council’s position on Draft amending budget No 3/2012 of the European Union for the financial year 2012, Section III – Commission.

Article 15.3 of TFEU instructs that "any discrepancy with the estimates shall be entered in the budget for the following financial year through an amending budget devoted solely to that discrepancy".

As such, draft amending budget No 3/2012 aims to use in the 2012 budget the surplus from the 2011 financial year, which amounts to EUR 1.49 billion. This means that member states can reduce their contributions to the FY 2012 budget by EUR 1.49 billion. As a consequence, the individual contributions from the individual member states would be decreased by 1.6%.

The EUR 1.49 billion surplus is comprised of an under-spend of EUR 0.73 billion (in large part derived from the non-adoption of the proposed salary adjustment for 2011), a positive outturn on income of more than EUR 0.67 billion (EUR 0.45 billion coming from fines and interest on late payments) and a positive exchange rate difference of EUR 0.1 billion.

The report states that the 2011 under-spend "does not result from absorption difficulties or mismanagement but from the rules in force for adjusting the repartition of payments in line with the needs, particularly during the last weeks of the financial year”.

However, it is indicated that for 2012 there will be a shortage in payments in many areas of EU intervention. This is due to two consecutive years of decreased levels of payment appropriations in the Union’s budget. Indeed, for 2012 the Budgetary Authority agreed on a lower level of payments (EUR 3 billion less) than proposed by the European Commission in their draft budget.

Furthermore, the Council’s decision to lower by more than two thirds the level of the EUR 485 million transfer (DEC 9/2012) to the research area, despite urgent needs in payments, has resulted in more than EUR 338 million payments residing on budget lines where they cannot be spent.

Considering the legal framework, and that "any interpretation of the Financial Regulation provisions consisting in the obligation for the Parliament to adopt this amending budget without modification may go against the budgetary prerogatives of the Parliament as provided for by the Treaty”, it was decided that this amount (EUR 0.73 billion) should legitimately go back to the EU budget, as some carry-over of unspent appropriations.

The European Parliament voted to approve the report on the 5th July with 585 for, 26 against and 6 abstentions.

To read the report click here

Alternatively visit the website at www.euorparl.europa.eu

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