The Committee on Budgets adopted the report drafted by Reimer BÖGE (EPP, DE) in which it calls on the European Parliament to approve the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument to complement the financing in the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2012, beyond the ceilings of heading 1a and 4, of:
Members recall that the ceilings of the Multiannual Financial Framework, especially for subheading 1a and heading 4, do not allow the financing of EU priorities without jeopardising the existing instruments and policies. The Commission has therefore proposed to mobilise the Flexibility Instrument to offset the reinforcement for the European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument under heading 4 for an amount of EUR 153 343 576.
Members note that, despite contained reinforcements in commitments on a limited number of budget items and several decreases on other budget items, the ceilings of subheading 1a and heading 4 do not allow for an adequate financing of selected priorities carried by the Parliament and the Council. It is for this reason that they approve the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument for the financing of the EU 2020 Strategy under subheading 1a, and the financing of European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument under heading 4 for a total amount of EUR 239.42 million.
To conclude, Members highlight once more the crucial need for the EU budget to be increasingly flexible.