Brussels, 01/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Various MEPs on the European Parliament's budgets committee are concerned about a potential lack of payment appropriations in the EU's budget for 2012. They explained on Thursday 31 March that in the upcoming budget negotiations about the 2012 budget, the member states may again focus on the debate on payment appropriations, but higher payment appropriations are needed to meet a number of commitments.
The rapporteur on the 2012 budget, Francesca Balzani (S&D, Italy), points out that the 30 March budget meeting between the Commission, Hungarian Presidency and the EP had been very straightforward because no figures are available yet. At the meeting, Balzani submitted the EP's guidelines for the 2012 budget and explained that it made sense to put the EUROPE 2020 strategy at the heart of the 2012 budget negotiations. She said that unspent budget spending should be returned to the budget to provide greater leeway and flexibility in the future budget.
Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), chair of the budgets committee, said that the three-way meeting on the draft 2012 budget had not really been an exchange of views but rather an exchange of two fixed positions. The Council said why the budget should be as small as possible and the rapporteur explained the EP's general guidelines. One positive thing that emerged, however, was that all three institutions had their eyes on the EUROPE 2020 strategy.
Lamassoure said he was shocked that nobody had commented when he had called for the political budget debate to focus on commitment appropriations rather than payment appropriations. He said this had been standard practice until it was dropped a few years ago. Alain Lamassoure said that payment appropriations were simply the automatic (mathematical), legal and compulsory outcome of the spending commitments undertaken. The negotiators for the 2011 budget focused on payment appropriations, but this would make the talks on the 2012 budget impossible, he added. The Council of Ministers decided last year to restrict the increase in payment appropriations to 2.91% (the European Commission had initially suggested a 5.8% increase). Due to greater use of funding under the Structural Funds and increased expenditure to pump-prime the economy, Lamassoure said that it is right now that payments will increase (in 2011 and 2012) but if people keep on claiming that all 27 member states and the EU have to have austerity budgets and if the debate focused on payment appropriations, then this would lead to ridiculous contradictions. His comments to this effect had been ignored by the other two institutions at the three-way meeting and Lamassoure added that in its draft budget for 2012 (to be unveiled at the end of April), the Commission would be forced, for legal reasons, to suggest an increase in payment appropriations that might appear to be high although in reality it is simply a reflection of the political decisions taken in the past.
The situation is critical, agreed Salvador Garriga Polledo (EPP, Spain). The Commission says there will be greater spending in 2012 and 2013 than in 2011 and it is known that in 2011, what the Council of Ministers has agreed to in terms of payments is just not enough to meet the requirements of the multi-annual programmes, particularly the Structural Funds and the Solidarity Fund. A proper EU budget simply cannot be drawn up if one does not have enough payment appropriations, explained Polledo, pointing out that extra payment appropriations will be needed in 2012 for ITER, the nuclear fusion programme, which would be yet another problem because it would not be easy to find the funding to meet ITER commitments.
Helga Trüpel (Greens/EFA, Germany) said that it was a good idea to focus on commitment appropriations, as suggested by Lamassoure, and regretted that the Council of Ministers was being autistic on the issue. The Greens/EFA oppose investment in nuclear fusion (and therefore ITER), she explained because the problem of nuclear waste generated by reactors has not been solved and there is also a budget problem.
Lucas Hartong (a Dutch non-attached MEP) said that the EU budget had to be cut and people had to spend less.
Timing. The first three-way meeting on the 2012 budget formally opened the budget negotiating procedure. The EU institutions agreed on the following timing of talks this year: - 11 July, three-way meeting; - End of July, publication of the Council of Minsters' position; - Early October, vote by the EP budgets committee; - 19 October, three-way meeting; - End of October, publication of the EP's position; - From 1 to 21 November, conciliation process, if necessary. The Hungarian Presidency has asked the European Commission to unveil a realistic proposal that takes account of the implementation of the budget in the past. (L.C./transl.fl)