The European Parliament adopted by 581 votes to 48, with 14 abstentions, a resolution on the Council position on Draft amending budget No 6/2017 of the European Union for the financial year 2017: Reduction of payment and commitment appropriations in line with updated forecasts of expenditure and update of revenue (own resources and fines).
Parliament approved the Council's position on draft amending budget No 6/2017. This draft aims to:
Draft amending budget No 6/2017 results in a reflow to national budgets of EUR 9 829.6 million additional to the reflow of EUR 6 405 million already confirmed in light of Amending budget 2/2017.
Members expressed serious concerns over the payment surplus of EUR 7 719.7 million and is particularly astonished by the situation of European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds in sub-heading 1b, where Member States, in their July submission, revised downwards their forecasts for payment claims by EUR 5.9 billion due to continued delays in the implementation of the programmes, thereby preventing many potential projects and beneficiaries from Union support.
Members expressed serious concerns over the payment surplus of EUR 7 719.7 million, in particular concerning the situation of European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds in sub-heading 1b, where Member States revised downwards their forecasts for payment claims by EUR 5.9 billion.
They also deplored:
In the light of the Commission's latest payment forecasts, according to which the under-implementation will continue in the coming years, Parliament urged in particular those Member States with a very high level of under-implementation to take the necessary measures to properly implement the jointly agreed Union programmes, with the assistance of the Commission.
Members noted with satisfaction that Union programmes under sub-heading 1a (Competitiveness for growth and jobs) are generally well implemented. This proves the Council wrong in its constant approach to reduce this subheadings appropriations on the grounds of an alleged lack of absorption capacity.
Lastly, Members deplored that amounts recovered from the under-implementation of Union programmes and from fines under the Unions competition policy are destined to reduce Member States GNI contributions instead of being used for the funding of Union priorities.