The European Parliament adopted by 641 votes to 36, with 8 abstentions, a resolution approving the Council position on Draft amending budget No 3/2021 of the European Union for the financial year 2021 - entering the surplus of the financial year 2020.
Parliament took note of the draft amending budget No 3/2021 presented by the Commission, which aims to enter in the 2021 budget the surplus from the financial year 2020, corresponding to EUR 1 768 617 610. This surplus is mainly composed of a positive outturn of EUR 1 647.3 million and an under-spending of expenditure of EUR 121.3 million.
On the revenue side, the surplus is predominantly driven by a higher than expected collection of customs duties.
On the expenditure side, under-implementation in payments by the Commission reaches EUR 100.98 million for 2020 (of which EUR 61.7 million under Heading 5 - Administration, attributable to COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on missions, meetings, traineeships and recruitments), and EUR 120.38 million the under-implementation by the other institutions.
Parliament reiterated its position that all available means and unused funds in the EU budget, including the surplus, should be used to provide rapid financial assistance to those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Member States were invited to devote the expected reductions in their GNI-based contributions stemming from the 2020 surplus entirely to the budgeting of actions related to tackling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to the recovery and resilience of the Union, to ensure an optimal allocation of the funds.