Brussels, 23/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 23 October, the European Commission adopted an amending budget of €9 billion to allow it to meet its legal obligations towards beneficiaries of EU funds. This is in line with the joint statement the Council and the European Parliament adopted the day the EU budget for 2012 was adopted inviting the Commission to request additional money “in an amending budget if the appropriations entered in the 2012 budget are insufficient to cover expenditure”.
Having now a more complete picture of budget implementation in 2012, the Commission estimates that an extra €9 billion is needed to cover the incoming bills and respect contractual and legal obligations, mainly in areas essential for growth and jobs in Europe.
The Erasmus programme requires a further €90 million, failing which there is a risk of having to considerably reduce the number of places available to students or to lower the amount of the grants. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds will obviously be hit the hardest.
For research programmes, the Commission needs €423 million more, partly in order to pay in time and avoid interests on delayed payments. Another part of this additional funding is to cover pre-financing payments on projects for which agreements have already been signed. Not respecting the deadlines would mean postponing the start of projects essential for Europe's future competitiveness in the globalised world.
The highest amount, i.e. €8.3 billion, is requested for Europe's regions under cohesion policy and rural development. All these projects improve the lives of EU citizens by giving them better skills, better job prospects or by creating transport and energy infrastructures.
The impact of this amending budget on the contributions of EU member states will however be mitigated due to an increase of income to the EU budget from other sources, i.e. €3.1 billion of additional revenue mainly from fines in the field of competition policy and other penalties. The net effect for member states therefore amounts to €5.9 billion. On this subject, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said: “This is not about the Commission asking for more money but about member states honouring the commitments they have made: to provide uninterrupted funding to students under the Erasmus programme or to poorer regions through the Cohesion Funds. These payments are essential to revive growth and create jobs throughout the EU”. (LC/transl.jl)