Brussels, 22/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has brought significant changes to the Council position on the draft EU budget for 2015. In Strasbourg on Wednesday 22 October, it increased the draft budget presented by the European Commission by €4 billion in commitments and €750 million in payments. Unpaid invoices are the priority issue for the Parliament.
As the respective positions of the Council and the Parliament are far apart, a three-week conciliation period is about to begin on 28 October to try to bring the two points of view closer and permit the budget for next year to be adopted in plenary session on 26 November. Should the conciliation procedure not deliver the hoped-for outcome, the Commission will have to bring forward a fresh budget proposal for 2015.
In adopting the budgetary amendments (by 464 votes to 186, with 46 abstentions), the Parliament voted to raise commitment appropriations for 2015 to €146.42 billion (up 8.1% on the 2014 budget!) and payment appropriations to €146.35 billion (up 2.6%). The Council figures were €145.08 billion in commitments (an increase of 1.7% on 2014) and €140 billion in payments (an increase of 3.3%)
Unpaid invoices. To pay bills from local authorities, small enterprises and other beneficiaries in 2014, the European Commission has been forced to request additional funds in the form of draft amending budgets (DABs). Jean Arthuis (ALDE, France), who chairs the budgets committee, stated: “We hope that the Council will be prepared to shift its position. The first signs it has shown leave me perplexed”. The Parliament underlines that to be able to determine precisely the needs for 2015 resulting from previous financial years, negotiations on the additional payment needs for 2014 should be completed “before” conciliation on the 2015 budget. “There is something like €5 billion that the countries of the EU could consider complementary resources for national budgets. The countries are looking to pocket €5 billion”, stated Arthuis. The Parliament wants this unexpected revenue (mainly fines after EU Court of Justice competition rulings) to be used to lessen the payment appropriations problem. The Parliament is playing down the impact of the amending budgets, estimating that the draft amending budgets Nos 2, 3 and 4/2014 would only mean that a total of €106 million in terms of additional GNI contributions would have to be provided by the member states.
To make up for the payment appropriations shortfall, which has been increasing since 2010 (€25 billion at the end of 2014), Parliament passed a €4 billion supplement for 2015.
“With only 1% of EU GNI, the EU budget can give a push to national budgets and encourage growth and employment. Our priorities are the same as those of the Council, but the Council does not want to finance them”, protested Eider Gardiazabal (S&D, Spain), rapporteur on the 2015 budget.
Parliament reversed all of the credit reductions sought by the member states and requested additional funding to boost growth and jobs, as the budgets committee had recommended (see EUROPE 11172). SMEs, research and education programmes, including Erasmus+, should receive €190.5 million more, according to the plenary vote. Financial oversight agencies, farmers and fishermen hit by Russia's embargo on their exports, and the EU's aid fund for its most deprived citizens should also get more (an extra €6.1 million, €30 million and €16.7 million respectively), said Parliament. MEPs voted €400 million more than was originally proposed by the Commission for the EU to fulfil its international responsibilities, inter alia, to Syrian refugees, Ukraine and Palestine.
On the €300 billion investment fund to be presented at Christmas time by new Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, “we have some doubts. I don't see how he will be able to recycle credits. We have €220 billion outstanding, so the commitments have been taken by the budgetary authority. This money will probably have to be found elsewhere”, said Arthuis.
At the employment summit (see EUROPE 11173), EU leaders were unhappy that the level of pre-financing for the youth guarantee was only 1%. “They realised quite quickly that the promises they are making and that are having an impact in terms of communication have not been financed and that we have no room for manoeuvre here”, stated Arthuis, unhappy that the seven-year financial framework “locks us in a tunnel”. (LC)