Brussels, 09/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 9 October, European Commissioner for the Budget Janusz Lewandowski confirmed that he will issue a draft amending budget on 23 October with additional funds so that some programmes, which are short of money today, can continue until the end of the year. The amount is expected to amount to several billion euro.
“Yes, we have informed the European Parliament and the Council that a dozen or so programmes have already used up between 95-100% of their yearly allocated funding, three months before the end of the year”, the Commission points out. The programmes in question concern research (space and security), growth and employment (European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund), education (Erasmus), health, humanitarian aid and food aid.
On 23 October the Commission will issue a draft amending budget for 2012. This will request extra funds for these programmes to be allowed to finish their annual course. “We are still in the process of calculating the overall amount even though it already appears that we will need several billion euro for the programme”, Lewandowski says.
In the case of Erasmus, 70% of the students have received their payments. A sizeable proportion of the remaining 30% will not be affected as numerous national agencies, which actually hand over the grants, still have financial resources. There are of course some who risk finding themselves short of funding - “it's for them that we will present the draft amending budget”. “Erasmus is good for Europe's youth and for Europe's recovery from the crisis. I cannot imagine our national governments refusing to invest in our youth!”, Lewandowski says.
The situation does not come as a surprise. At the end of 2011 the EU budget was in a similar situation. The budgetary authority (Council and Parliament) had adopted a 2011 budget that was too low. Indeed, the Commission had to roll over some €5 billion of bills. Consequently the 2012 budget was cut short by this amount of money right from the start of the year.
The European Parliament and the Council adopted a 2012 budget at the end of last December which was again “at a level below the Commission's estimates”. Lewandowski had warned that the amounts adopted for 2012 were too low and “would not be enough to cover the needs”. In Lewandowski's view, EU finance ministers have lost sight of the reality of the EU budget - behind those figures are hundreds of thousands of students, researchers, cities and regions, NGOs and small and medium sized enterprises that are counting on this European financing, and for whom a reduction in the EU budget means even more hardship in times of crisis.
In the draft amending budget, there will not be a eurocent for the EU institutions. “It will be an amending budget for Europe's students, Europe's scientists, NGOs, businesses and others for whom the EU budget makes a difference. Every day. The European Commission's duty is to preserve their interests, and through them, the EU's interest. And I will fight for them”, Lewandowski states in his conclusion. (LC/transl.fl)