The European Parliament adopted by 295 votes to 154, with 197 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the joint text on the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2018 approved by the Conciliation Committee under the budgetary procedure.
The European Parliament approved the joint text agreed upon by the Conciliation Committee, which consists of all the following documents:
- list of budget lines not modified, compared to the draft budget or the Council's position;
- summary figures by financial framework headings;
- line by line figures on all budget items;
- a consolidated document showing the figures and final text of all lines modified during the conciliation.
According to the elements for joint conclusions:
- the overall level of commitment appropriations in the 2018 budget is set at EUR 160 113.5 million. Overall, this leaves a margin below the MFF ceilings for 2018 of EUR 1 600,3 million in commitment appropriations;
- the overall level of payment appropriations in the 2018 budget is set at EUR 144 681.0 million;
- the Flexibility Instrument for 2018 is mobilised in commitment appropriations for an amount of EUR 837.2 million for heading 3 Security and Citizenship;
- the Global margin for commitments is used at a level of EUR 1 113,7 million for heading 1a Competitiveness for Growth and Jobs and heading 1b Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion;
- the Decision EU 2017/344 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the Contingency margin in 2017 will be amended to adjust the offsetting profile to decrease the amount offset in heading 5 Administration in 2018 from EUR 570 million to EUR 318 million and correspondingly introduce offsetting of EUR 252 million for the same heading in 2020;
- the 2018 payment appropriations related to the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 are estimated by the Commission at EUR 678.3 million.
According to the elements for joint conclusions, Draft Amending Budget 6/2017 is accepted as proposed by the Commission.
Similarly, the joint text confirms some cross-cutting issues relating to decentralised agencies and more specifically on the granting of posts to Europol, Eurojust, the European Asylum Office, the European GNSS Agency and the European Securities and Markets Authority.
A comprehensive package of 87 pilot projects/preparatory actions (PP/PA), for a total amount of EUR 100 million in commitment appropriations is agreed as proposed by the Parliament in addition to the preparatory action proposed by the Commission in the Draft budget 2018.
The commitment appropriations are set as follows:
- Heading 1a - Competitiveness for growth and jobs: EUR 22 001.5 million, with no margin left under the expenditure heading 1a ceiling set at EUR 21 239 million, and the use of the Global Margin for Commitments for an amount of EUR 762.5 million;
- Heading 1b - Economic, social and territorial cohesion: EUR 55 532.2 million, with no margin left under the expenditure ceiling of heading 1b of EUR 55 181 million, and the use of the Global Margin for Commitments for an amount of EUR 351.2 million;
- Heading 2 - Sustainable growth: natural resources: EUR 59 285.3 million, leaving a margin of EUR 981.7 million under the expenditure ceiling of heading 2;
- Heading 3 - Security and citizenship: EUR 3 493.2 million, with no margin left under the expenditure ceiling of heading 3, and the mobilisation of EUR 837.2 million through the Flexibility Instrument;
- Heading 4 - Global Europe: EUR 9 568.8 million, leaving a margin of EUR 256.2 million under the expenditure ceiling of heading 4;
- Heading 5 - Administration: EUR 9 665.5 million, leaving a margin of EUR 362.5 million under the expenditure ceiling of heading 5, after the use of EUR 318 million of the margin to offset the mobilisation of the Contingency margin in 2017.
The joint text also contains two joint statements by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission respectively on:
- payment appropriations: the statement recalled the need to ensure, in the light of implementation, an orderly progression of payments in relation to the appropriations for commitments so as to avoid any abnormal level of unpaid invoices at year-end. The Council and the European Parliament will take any necessary decisions in due time for duly justified needs to prevent the accumulation of an excessive amount of unpaid bills and to ensure that payment claims are duly reimbursed;
- the Youth Employment Initiative: the three institutions recall that reducing unemployment, and in particular, youth unemployment, remains a high and shared political priority. They reaffirmed their determination to make the best possible use of budgetary resources available to tackle it, and in particular through the Youth Employment Initiative.
Lastly, the Council recalled that the deadline for the full implementation of the 5% workforce reduction has been set for 2017. However, as not all the institutions, bodies and agencies have met this reduction target, the Council urged that efforts be continued in 2018 to respect the agreement.