Brussels, 10/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Gone are the cuts made by the EU Council of Ministers last July. The European Parliament budgets committee, which on Wednesday 10 October unveiled the figures for its amendments to the draft EU 2013 budget, reckons on a total sum of commitment appropriations of €151.1 billion (in other words 2.2% more than in 2012) and on a total of €137.9 billion payment appropriations (in other words, 6.82% more than in 2012). The budgets committee thus recommends the European Parliament to vote on 23 October in favour of more or less restoring the European Commission's initial budget. The Council has advocated €149.7 billion in commitments (+1.27%) and €132.7 billion in payments (+2.79%).
The budgets committee deplores the fact that the Council has again this year proceeded with the usual horizontal draft budget reductions in the aim of artificially decreasing the EU's resources for 2013 by an overall sum of €1.1 billion (-0.8%) in commitment appropriations and of €5.2 billion (-3.8%) in payment appropriations in relation to the draft report. The MEPs call for more transparency about member states' financial claims on the EU budget, making this information public.
Lastly, the budgets committee calls on the Commission to bring forward a draft amending budget for the 2012 budget so as to settle the problem of the lack of appropriations in some programmes (including Erasmus, research and the European Social Fund). (LC/transl.fl)