Brussels, 21/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - MEPs are calling on the Council to act responsibly when calculating the EU's 2013 budget and to “refrain from making artificial cuts” by deciding on the level of overall payments without taking into account an estimate of genuine needs. The budgets committee finalised, on Wednesday 20 June, the mandate of the team of Parliament negotiators concerning the 9 July discussions with the Council on the budget for 2013.
MEPs are particularly concerned by the Commission and member states' proposal to freeze commitment appropriations for 2013 at the level of the estimated inflation rate for next year. The EP, however, understands that the Commission, at the end of the programming period, places emphasis on payments in so far as it also plans to provide a solution to the problem represented by the growing level of bills that cannot be paid on time (RAL - reste à liquider). “Freezing commitment appropriations cannot be considered an acceptable strategy to keep the level of outstanding commitments under control. Commitments are crucial for determining the EU's political priorities and for ensuring that the investment needed to boost growth, competitiveness and employment will be made”, said Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy), the rapporteur for the 2013 budget.
The budgets committee also deplores the fact that the Danish Presidency did not attend a meeting called to tackle the looming shortfall in funds for this year in order to discuss how to calculate the payments. Solving these issues would help smooth the way for the negotiations on the content and size of the 2013 budget, it says.
Focusing on growth and employment. The parliamentary committee hopes the budget will focus on measures to promote growth and employment. It is pleased that the biggest increases in commitments are concentrated in budget heading 1a, “competitiveness for growth and employment”. The budgets committee does not approve of the Commission's proposal to finance the nuclear research programme ITER exclusively from the Framework Programme 7 (FP7) research programme.
On the subject of cohesion policy, MEPs point out that, at the end of 2011, the Commission was not able to reimburse around €11 billion in legitimate payment claims presented by beneficiaries of projects due to the shortfall in funds.
The Commission has suggested that the total budget for 2013 (in commitments) should be €151 billion, 2% more than in 2012. It proposes a significant increase (+6.8%) of payment appropriations, a rise that has already been refused by many EU member states.
The budgets committee underlines that payment appropriations proposed by the Commission be based on estimates by member states, and invites the Commission to verify with member states whether their estimates for payment increase requests are exact and realistic. (LC/transl.jl)