PURPOSE: definitive adoption (EU, Euratom) 2024/1509 of amending budget No 2 of the European Union for the financial year 2024.
CONTENT: the President of the European Parliament noted that the procedure laid down in Article 314 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union had been completed and that amending budget No 2 of the European Union for the financial year 2024 had been definitively adopted.
Amending budget No 3 for the year 2024 introduces the necessary reinforcement to the European Public Prosecutor's Office (the EPPO) following the Commission decision confirming the participation of Poland in the enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the EPPO that was adopted on 29 February 2024, as well as the expected participation of Sweden.
Overall, the net impact of AB 3/2024 on expenditure amounts to an increase of EUR 3.6 million in commitment and in payment appropriations and an additional 20 establishment plan posts.
In the absence of any margin in Heading 2b (Resilience and Values), additional costs will be covered by mobilising the Flexibility Instrument.
Poland’s accession to the EPPO and Sweden’s expected participation is welcomed. This would take the number of participating Member States to 24. With this enlargement, the EPPO will also be in a position to investigate and prosecute offences affecting the Union’s financial interests committed in those Member States, thus better protecting the Union’s interests and its budget and helping to uphold the rule of law.
Amending budget No 3/2024 does not provide the resources necessary to ensure that the EPPO is fully equipped to pursue effectively its investigations, manage its growing operational workload and has sufficient resources to prepare for full and secure IT systems autonomy as of 2025. In this regard, the necessary additional resources should be included in a future draft amending budget.