Brussels, 21/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - Unlike the Council, the European Parliament budgets committee took a stance, on Thursday 21 June, in favour of using part of the remainder of the 2011 budget to prevent looming budget shortfalls in 2012. The 2011 budget surplus should, logically, reduce member states' contributions to the 2012 budget by as much.
At the initiative of Francesca Balzani (S&D, Italy), the rapporteur on the draft correcting budget No3/2912 (budget surplus 2011), the EP budgets committee proposes using last year's under-spent €0.73 billion to make payments needed in the fields of research (€338 million) and cohesion (€391 million). According to Balzani, a budget surplus exists “not because the money was not needed, but because the rules did not allow for a much-needed quick transfer from one budget line to another at the very end of last year”.
Members of the budgets committee underline that all available indicators point to a shortage of payments in many areas, inter alia because, for 2012, Parliament and Council agreed on a budget that was €3 billion less than the Commission thought necessary. In the field of research in particular, projects could be brought to a standstill as there are no funds to pay for the initial amounts due upon signing new contracts. As a result, projects in areas like health research and bio-and nanotechnology would be delayed.
Balzani's proposal comes also as a response to the recent Council refusal to redeploy €485 million in the 2012 budget with a view to financing 200 research projects. Instead of that, and against the wishes of the Parliament, the Council has reduced the Commission's proposal by two-thirds (i.e. €338 million).
At €1.49 billion, the budget surplus in 2012 is historically low. By comparison, in 2011 it was three times as high, at €4.54 billion. The surplus is the sum of the under-spent amount in 2011 (€0.73 billion), fines and interest on late payments (€0.67 billion) and exchange rate differences (€97 million).
The key question that will be raised at the trialogue on the 2013 budget, scheduled for 9 July, is: What will be done with the budget surplus? (LC/transl.jl)