Brussels, 01/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 1 December, the European Parliament approved the compromise deal reached with the Council of Ministers on 18 November for the EU budget for 2012, with a slight rise (1.86%) in payment appropriations on 2011. The budget for next year is a reduction on the 2011 budget in real terms if inflation next year is the forecast 2%. The EU budget for 2012 totals €129.1 billion (+1.86%) for payment appropriations and €147.2 billion (+3.8%) for commitment appropriations.
The chair of the EP's budgets committee, Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), said the deal managed to combine two seeming contradiction, namely the aim of reducing running costs and preserving future spending to boost today's economy and ensure competitiveness in the future, but said that two lessons should be learnt. Firstly, that it was not possible to continue with this process of negotiating backwards by starting with payment credits because political decisions translate into commitment appropriations. The EP wants the three EU institutions over the next few months to look at how appropriations are actually used to make sure that the negotiations over the budget for 2013 are based on detailed information and do not end in a new freezing of funding. Secondly, the budget showed that it is no longer possible to fund all the EU budget solely from national contributions and as far as the EP is concerned, there will not be any agreement on the upcoming Financial Framework without agreement in principle on funding the EU from other sources.
EP rapporteur Francesca Balzani (S&D, Italy) welcomed the member states' acceptance of the EP's two priorities, but warned that the agreed level of payment appropriations may not provide enough cash for next year's bills. José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Portugal), rapporteur on running costs (just under 6% of the total budget), said the deal struck a good balance between austerity and requirements and the various institutions' administrative budgets would increase by only 1% or so, which amounts to a cut in real terms.
EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski warned that the agreed level of payment appropriations may not be high enough and said that thought should go into the annual budget process, particularly at the end of the five-year Financial Frameworks, but at the moment, he trusted the joint statement signed by the member states. The budget deal includes €100 million in 2012 to finance the international nuclear fusion project ITER, but far more will be needed to cover all ITER's additional costs in the future. Among the good outcomes won by the EP are (1) a €160 million rise on the initially suggested commitment appropriations for the EUROPE 2020 strategy (including €52 million more for lifelong learning); and (2) the provision of €200 million from the Flexibility Instrument (of which €150 million is for foreign action under the European neighbourhood policy). (LC/transl.fl)