2011 general budget: all sections, second version

The committee adopted its report on the second version of the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2011 (all sections) as modified by the Council. The rapporteurs were Sidonia Elżbieta JĘDRZEJEWSKA (EPP, PL) for Section III - Commission and Helga TRÜPEL (Greens/EFA, DE) for the Other sections.

The report was adopted by the committee following the budgetary trilogue of 6 December 2010 at which agreement was reached on the funding levels proposed in the new draft budget submitted by the Commission on 26 November 2010. For details of the first draft general budget which ended in the failure of conciliation, see procedure file 2010/2001(BUD).

 The committee endorsed the figures proposed in the new draft budget:

• €141.8 billion for commitments, which represents a below-inflation increase of 0.2% compared to the 2010 budget;
• €126.5 billion for payments, an increase of 2.9%.

However, the issue of flexibility within the budget - to cater for unforeseen expenditure for emergencies or new EU tasks - and the financing of the ITER nuclear fusion research project would need to be resolved at a later stage since no agreement had been reached between Parliament and Council.

The committee also approved a draft joint statement on payment appropriations which was annexed to the report, calling on the Commission to submit an amending budget "if the appropriations entered in the 2011 budget are insufficient to cover expenditure under sub-heading 1a (Competitiveness for growth and employment), sub-heading 1b (Cohesion for growth and employment), heading 2 (Preservation and management of natural resources), heading 3 (Citizenship, freedom, security and justice) and heading 4 (EU as a global player)". The draft joint statement pledged that Parliament and the Council would "take position" on any draft amending budget as quickly as possible in order to avoid any shortfall in payment appropriations.