Brussels, 29/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The member states of the EU should “refrain from artificially deciding the level of payments for 2013, without taking account of the actual budgetary needs”, stated the committee on budgets of the European Parliament, approving the budgetary guidelines for 2003 on Tuesday 28 February. The MEPs wish to ensure that the European Commission does not find itself at the end of the year in a situation similar to that of December 2011, in which it is no longer able to honour its contractual obligations.
In its adoption (33 votes in favour, three against and three abstentions) of the report by Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy) on the budgetary guidelines, the MEPs lay out their priorities for next year's budget. In mid-April, the European Commission will present the draft EU budget for 2013.
The members of the budgets committee are “extremely worried” about the looming shortage of payments in 2012, for which, they argue, the Council is responsible. In December 2011, the MEPs explain, the Council refused to finance additional needs identified. In fact, they continue, payments of a total of €10 billion were not able to be honoured at the end of 2011. These payments had to be postponed until 2012 and will no doubt lead to a payment shortage by the end of the year. The MEPs take the view that this situation is due to the fact that the Council “questioned” the execution date and assessment of needs provided by the Commission, without proposing other data or sources of information.
Deferring payments once more until 2013 - the last year of the current multi-annual financial framework, during which payments should be expected to increase - is considered poor financial management. Any artificial reduction in the level of payments will have the effect of delaying the settlement of the Union's contractual obligations and could give rise to demands for late-payment interest and a loss of confidence in European policies, stresses the report by Giovanni La Via, who stresses that the contractual debts must be paid as soon as possible, for budgetary discipline reasons.
The shortfall is actually €5 billion. According to a diplomatic source, the Council was never asked to support additional funds of a level of €10 billion. Readers may recall that the European Commission proposed in its draft rectifying budget no. 6/2011 an additional sum of €550 million, which was reduced to €200 million by request of the Council.
Earlier this week, the Commission informed the member states that the payments shortage is actually €5 billion in column 1b (cohesion) in 2011, which is to be covered in 2012. At the end of December, it received €16 billion in payment requests, of which it was able to honour €4 billion immediately. Given that the Commission usually receives payment requests in the order of €6 billion at the end of the year, which it is usually able to settle, the additional burden leading to a cash flow issue is €5 billion. The difficult payment appropriations situation in all areas could mean that it takes longer for these to be settled, said a Commission source. However, the Commission will not be obliged to pay late-payment interest, as Community rules link the payment obligation to the availability of funds.
The report observes that the level of payments has become the main political issue during the budgetary proceedings in recent years within the Council. The MEPs would like the budget to be established on the basis of technical criteria, such as implementation criteria, absorption forecasts and the level of commitments outstanding. If the Council makes new artificial cuts in the payments during this year's budgetary procedure, “it should clearly and publicly identify and justify which of the EU's political priorities or project it believes could be delayed or dropped altogether”, state the MEPs.
Priority to youth employment and SMEs. The 2013 budget of the EU should focus on youth employment and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the MEPs believe, welcoming similar declarations made by the European Council of 30 January. Promoting growth and job creation calls for specific actions and an intensification of budgetary efforts to support competitiveness, innovation and SMEs. According to the results of recent studies, SMEs were behind 85% of net new jobs created in the EU between 2002 and 2010 and constitute the backbone of economic growth.
The MEPs of the budgets committee are prepared to work with the Parliament's specialist committees to identify areas in which action needs to be stepped up, but also any “negative priorities”. The budgetary guidelines will be enshrined by the European Parliament at its plenary session on 13 March. (LC/transl.fl)