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Amending budget 3/2017: Youth Employment Initiative; staff establishment plans of the decentralised agency ACER and the joint undertaking SESAR2

2017/2078(BUD)

PURPOSE: presentation of draft amending budget No 3 to the general budget 2017 on increasing the budgetary resources of the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI).

CONTENT: the purpose of Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 3 for the year 2017 is twofold:

  • the provision of EUR 500 million of additional commitment appropriations to the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) as agreed by the European Parliament and the Council in their agreement on the budget 2017. No reinforcement in payment appropriations is proposed;
  • an amendment of the establishment plans of the decentralised agency ACER and the joint undertaking SESAR2, without incurring any changes to the overall budget or the total number of posts.

YEI: the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) was agreed in 2013 as a response to the exceptionally high youth unemployment levels across the EU. It has a dedicated allocation of EUR 3.2 billion in current prices to provide direct targeted support to young people not in employment, education, or training residing in regions with youth unemployment rates higher than 25% in 2012. In order to speed up implementation, the full allocation in terms of commitments under the 2014-20 period was frontloaded to 2014 and 2015.

Youth unemployment rates have decreased in most Member States in comparison to the reference year of 2012 but they are still above 2008 (pre financial crisis) levels. This situation calls for continued efforts and support at EU level which is why the European Parliament and the Council in their agreement on the budget 2017 invited "the Commission to propose an amending budget in 2017 in order to provide EUR 500 million for the YEI in 2017 financed by the Global Margin for Commitments, as soon as the technical adjustment foreseen in article 6 of the MFF Regulation is adopted."

This is the aim of this amending budget.

The reinforcement in commitment appropriations of the YEI will be financed from the Global Margin for Commitments (GMC). They will not translate into additional payment needs in 2017. Before any payments on the reinforcement can be made, all relevant operational programmes have to be amended. This process is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017, which is after the legal deadline for paying the 2017 annual pre-financing.

Staff establishment plans: lastly the amending budget concerns the amendment of the staff establishment plans of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and the SESAR2 Joint Undertaking.