Brussels, 25/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Community draft budget for 2013 was adopted by the European Commission on Wednesday 25 April and is more than just modest, given that this is the first time it plans a freeze on future spending: the increase of commitments (i.e. tomorrow's payments) is at the level of inflation (2%), in order to reach €150.9 billion. It also freezes the Commission's administrative budget at well below inflation level, while cutting its staff by 1%, the first step towards the goal of a 5% reduction of staff in 5 years.
The Commission proposes a 6.8% increase (compared to 2012) in the level of payments (to €137.9 billion). This contributes directly to growth and jobs in Europe. The EU budget must meet its contractual obligations of current and previous years vis-à-vis the member states and other recipients. This increase has already been criticised by a number of the so-called “net EU budget contributor” member states (Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland and Italy). The outgoing minister for finance in the Netherlands, Jan Kees de Jager, stated on Wednesday that such an increase in the 2013 budget is “unthinkable”. France described this rise as “unacceptable”.
The Commission proposed budget, in terms of commitment appropriations, represents 1.03% of EU27 GDP (1.13% of GNP, when the proposed commitment appropriations are taken into account).
The figures in the draft budget did not take into account Croatia's accession costs to the EU, planned in July 2013 (access to EU funds, up to around €700 million for 2013).
The commissioner for the budget, Janusz Lewandowski, informed the press that the EU budget was a modest one, and added that the EU is not the cause of the budgetary crisis in EU countries and is not the solution to the debt and deficits in member states. He added: “We will not restore growth by cuts only; Europe needs to invest wisely for its own future starting today. That is what the EU budget is for, that is what our draft budget for 2013 is about.” The commissioner explained that the EU's draft budget for 2013 reflects the European Council's declarations that growth and job creation in the Union can only develop through the combination of good budgetary housekeeping and investment in favour of future growth.
Responsibility and solidarity. During a press conference following his meeting with the president of the EP, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, stipulated that the draft budget 2013 is “a budget that is going to invest in growth and jobs, while recognising the pressure on national budgets”. He said that the “draft budget for 2013 shows responsibility and solidarity” and, “shows responsibility because it freezes future expenditure, so called 'commitment appropriations', at the level of inflation. It also moves expenditure to areas that can best help to create growth and jobs.” Barroso added, “We are rigorously reducing expenditure in areas that are less well performing”, and affirmed: “We are limiting the increase of the administrative expenditure to 1.2%, which is clearly under inflation. At the same time, the budget shows solidarity because it is also a budget for investment and cohesion. And it is above all a budget that respects our legal obligations.”
Legal obligation. In response to criticism from certain countries about the level of the 2013 draft budget being too high, Barroso explained: “The European Commission, the Council and the Parliament are bound by the Treaties to make sure that the funds are ready to fulfil the obligations that are given to the EU institutions. So we have a legal obligation apart from our political duty to make available the resources for the programmes that have been approved.”
“Member states and private beneficiaries are now submitting the bulk of their bills to us. This is normal in the last year of a programming period. So to put it bluntly, it is now that most member states are coming to the EU with the bills to pay for their regions, for their programmes. It is now more than in previous years, so we have to respect these commitments. And the EU has to pay these bills, there is no way around it. The Treaty itself (Art. 323) is very clear about this. This is why we propose an increase in payments of 6.8%. These increasing payments fully respect, and are indeed under, the commitments that were already agreed by the member states”, Barroso explained. He called on member states to act responsibly in discussions on the draft budget for 2013.
€62.5 billion for growth and jobs. The draft budget includes payments of up to €62.5 billion for job creation in Europe. A particular effort was made for the research framework programmes (€9 billion, an increase of 28.1% compared to 2012), the programme for innovation and competitiveness (€546.4 million, +47.8%), structural and cohesion funds (€49 billion, +11.7%) and lifelong learning (€1.2 billion, +15.8%).
The Commission is proposing: an increase in commitment appropriations of 17.8% (a total of €13.5 billion) under the “competitiveness” heading (which also includes research); an 11.7% increase under Heading 1b 'cohesion' to €48.9 billion; - a 0.5% increase in agricultural spending; - a 4.8% increase in payment appropriations under Heading 3 “citizenship; freedom, security and justice” (including +18% for solidarity and migration flow management); - a 5.1% increase in commitment appropriations under Heading 4 'external action' (including +21.1% for pre-accession instruments, +5.9% for Common Foreign Security Policy, +11.6% for the European Neighbourhood Instrument and +9.1% for democracy and human rights); - a 3.2% increase in administrative spending, which will now stand at €8.5 billion.
Savings. Payment commitments are the result of previous commitment appropriations and are intended to avoid a situation where future EU budgets are confronted with high payment increases. The Commission is proposing a slight increase of 2% in commitment appropriations, which will be limited to the current level of inflation. The increases planned will exclusively focus on growth and employment.
Budgetary lines for programmes whose effectiveness has not been proven have had cuts and each EU institution and agency has been strongly encouraged to make as many savings as possible. The majority of EU agencies will effectively see their annual budgets decrease.
What will the next stages be? The Council and the European Parliament will adopt the European Union budget. The Council will adopt its position on the draft budget in July 2012, then it will be the Parliament's turn. If there is disagreement between the two institutions, conciliation procedure of up to 21 days will be initiated. (LC/transl.fl)