Amending budget 7/2014: surplus 2013

2014/2225(BUD)

PURPOSE: to present the Draft Amending Budget No 2 for the year 2014.

CONTENT: on 15 April 2014, the Commission presented the Draft Amending Budget No 2/2014, which was intended to budget the surplus resulting from the implementation of the budget year 2013.

On 17 July 2014, the Council completed its reading of the Draft Amending Budget, and on 22 October 2014 the European Parliament voted its reading.

As the European Parliament adopted amendments to the Draft Amending Budget, which could not be accepted by the Council, a Conciliation Committee was convened, in accordance with Article 314 §4(c) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

The Conciliation Committee worked over a period of twenty-one days, between 28 October and 17 November 2014. However, it was not possible to reconcile the positions of the European Parliament and Council on the package of outstanding Draft Amending Budgets for 2014 (DAB 2-7) as well as on the 2015 budget, within the time period allowed, mostly due to a difference of opinion between the European Parliament and the Council on the outstanding payment needs for 2014 as reflected in the increase in payment appropriations requested in Draft Amending Budget 3/2014.

Although there was no disagreement on the calculation of the surplus itself and its treatment in a separate amending budget, as set out in Article 18 of the Financial Regulation, DAB No 2 was part of the overall 'package' under negotiation in the Conciliation Committee. That is why the Commission presents again, in line with Article 314(8) TFEU, the same amending budget (as Draft Amending Budget No 8/2014), to be adopted by the budgetary authority as part of a package which includes all outstanding amending budgets for 2014.

To recall, the present Draft Amending Budget No 2/2014 is intended to budget the surplus resulting from the implementation of the budget year 2013. It shows a surplus of EUR 1.005 billion, which is therefore entered as revenue in the 2014 budget.

The budgeting of the surplus will diminish accordingly the global contribution of the Member States to the financing of the EU Budget.