The European Parliament delegation to the Budgetary
Conciliation Committee adopted the report by Francesca BALZANI
(S&D, IT) and José-Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT) on the
joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee in the
framework of the 2012 budgetary procedure.
The delegation
recalls the main points of the joint text agreed by the
Conciliation Committee. These are summarised as follows:
- list of budget
lines not modified, compared to the draft budget or the Council's
position;
- summary figures by
financial framework headings;
- line by line
figures on all budget items;
- consolidated
document showing the figures and final text of all lines modified
during the conciliation.
The delegation confirms the joint statements by the
Parliament, the Council and the Commission included in the joint
conclusions agreed by the Conciliation Committee
including:
1.
Budget 2012;
2.
Budget 2011 Amending Budget 6/2011;
3.
Joint statements of the institutions on the
budget.
Horizontal issues:
- decentralised agencies: the total EU contribution in 2012 for decentralised
agencies is reduced by 1%, as compared to the Draft Budget (DB) as
amended by Amending Letter 3/2012. However, the total EU
contribution (in commitment appropriations and in payment
appropriations) is set at the level of the DB for FRONTEX, the
European Asylum Support Office (EASO), the European Banking
Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions
Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority
(ESMA). As compared to the Commission's Draft Budget, this leads to
an overall reduction in the EU contribution to the decentralised
agencies of EUR 6.1 million;
- Pilot Projects/Preparatory Actions: a comprehensive package of 70 pilot
projects/preparatory actions (PP/PA), including two
projects/actions in section X (EEAS) of the budget, for an amount
of EUR 105.4 million in commitment appropriations is agreed,
including all PP/PA proposed by the Parliament, the Commission and
the European External Action Service. The changes to the budget
remarks for the pilot project 'European Institute of Peace'
in section X (EEAS) are agreed. This package fully respects the
ceilings for pilot projects and preparatory actions provided in the
IIA.
Expenditure
headings of the financial framework - commitment
appropriations: the delegation noted the following:
- Heading 1a: commitment
appropriations are set at the level proposed by the Commission in
the Draft Budget, with amendments to the programmes and actions as
set out in the table that accompanies the draft resolution.
The Flexibility Instrument will be mobilised for an amount of
EUR 50.0 million for the 'Europe 2020 Strategy'. The commitment
appropriations put in the reserve for 'ITER' (budget article 08 20
02) are set at EUR 417.9 million.
- Heading 1b: commitment
appropriations are set at the level proposed in the Draft Budget,
with the exception of the budget line 13 03 31 'Technical
assistance and dissemination of information on the EU strategy for
the Baltic Sea Region and an improved knowledge of macro-regions
strategy', for which an amount of EUR 2.5 million in commitments is
agreed. As a consequence, the margin under the expenditure
ceiling of heading 1b amounts to EUR 8.4 million.
- Heading 2:
commitment appropriations are set at the level proposed by the
Commission in the Draft Budget, as amended by Amending Letter
3/2012, with amendments to programmes and actions as set out in the
table that accompanies the draft resolution. Reflecting the
political agreement reached on the 'Programmes for deprived
persons' (budget item 05 02 04 01), the appropriations
currently in reserve for this purpose are put on the line
concerned.
- Headings 3a and
3b: commitment appropriations are set at the level proposed by
the Commission in the Draft Budget, with amendments to the
programmes and actions as set out in the table that accompanies the
draft resolution.
- Heading 4:
commitment appropriations are set at the level proposed by the
Commission in the Draft Budget, including Amending Letter 1/2012,
with amendments agreed to programmes and actions as set out in the
draft resolution. The Flexibility Instrument will be mobilised
for an amount of EUR 150.0 million for the European Neighbourhood
Policy. Furthermore, the frontloading of 2011 commitment
appropriations for Palestine is agreed.
- Heading 5:
as far as the appropriations and establishment plan posts of all
Institutions are concerned, the position of the European Parliament
is approved. Furthermore, the reinforcements
proposed in Amending Letter 2/2012 are approved. Lastly, an
amount of EUR 10.4 million is added for pensions. As a
consequence, the margin under the expenditure ceiling of heading 5
amounts to EUR 474.4 million.
Payment appropriations:
the overall level of payment appropriations in the 2012 budget is
set at EUR 129 088,043 million. As part of the overall
compromise, the Conciliation Committee supports the reduction in
payment appropriations based on the application of a specific
calculation methodology to reduce payments.
In addition to the
overall reduction in payments by this calculation method, specific
amounts in payment appropriations are agreed for:
- Heading 1a:
the level of payment appropriations for the 'European Globalisation
Adjustment Fund' is set at EUR 50 million; the level of payment
appropriations for the 'European Year for Active Ageing and
Solidarity between Generations' is set at the level agreed between
Council and Parliament ('closed' line);
- Heading 2:
the level of payment appropriations for 'International Fisheries
Agreements' is set at the level proposed in Amending Letter
3/2012;
- Heading 3b:
the level of payment appropriations for the 'Special Annual Events'
is set at the level proposed in the Parliament position;
- Heading 4:
the level of payment appropriations for the 'Emergency Aid Reserve'
is set at EUR 90 million; the level of payment appropriations for
'Palestine' is set at the level proposed in the Draft Budget; the
level of payment appropriations for 'Macro Financial Assistance' is
set at the level agreed between Council and Parliament ('closed'
line); the level of payment appropriations for 'Sugar Protocol
Countries' is set at the level agreed between Council and
Parliament ('closed' line, in payment appropriations).
The overall
reduction in the level of payments (5a - 5b) is then distributed
across budget lines for differentiated expenditure under the
expenditure headings, according to the following distribution
key:
- Heading 1a:
31.00 %;
- Heading 1b:
38.45 %;
- Heading 2:
21.25 %;
- Heading 3a:
1.00 %;
- Heading 3b:
zero %;
- Heading 4:
8.30 %.
Reserves:
all reserves voted by the European Parliament are maintained. The
amount of the reserve on line 26 01 20 (EPSO) is decreased by
50%.
Joint statement on payment
appropriations: taking into account
the ongoing fiscal consolidation efforts in Member States, the
delegation stresses that the Council and the European Parliament
agree on a reduction of the level of payment appropriations for
2012 as compared to the Commission's Draft Budget.
Additional payment appropriations will be requested in an amending
budget if the appropriations entered in the 2012 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).
In particular, the Commission is urged to present by
the end of September 2012 at the latest updated figures concerning
the state of play and estimates regarding payment appropriations
under sub-heading 1b (Cohesion for growth and employment) and rural
development under heading 2 Preservation and Management of Natural
Resources, and, if necessary, to present a draft amending budget.
The Council and the European Parliament will take position on any
draft amending budget as quickly as possible in order to avoid any
shortfall in payment appropriations. In addition, the
Council and the European Parliament undertake to process swiftly
any possible transfer of payment appropriations, including across
financial framework headings, in order to make the best possible
use of payment appropriations entered in the budget and align them
to actual execution and needs.
The delegation, furthermore, calls on the Parliament
and Council to make the following statements:
- joint statement
on preventing measures for future crisis in the fruit and vegetable
sector: the possibility of the adoption of an amending budget
by the Commission in case of an exceptional market crisis in the
fruit and vegetable sector requiring the definition of specific
emergency measures, such as in the case of the e-coli crisis;
- joint statement
on the financing of the ITER project: the delegation calls on
the Parliament and the Council to invite the Commission to
facilitate reaching an agreement on the additional financing needs
of the ITER project, taking into account the concerns of both arms
of the budgetary authority.
The delegation also calls on Parliament to approve the
draft amending budget 6/2011, taking into account certain technical
amendments. The same applies for the amending budget 7/2011
(mobilisation of the Solidarity Fund for Italy and Spain) which is
accepted as it stands.
The other aspects in the draft resolution concerning
amendments made to remarks concerning the budget of the EEAS and
the budget line of the Commission for cross-border
journalism.