Brussels, 30/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 30 June, the European Commission proposed not only to make full use of the flexibility instrument (€530 million), but also to mobilise the 'contingency margin' to the tune of €1.1 billion to help to pay for the EU's measures in 2017 to manage the migration and refugee crisis.
When presenting the draft budget for 2017 adopted on Thursday, Kristalina Georgieva, Vice-President of the Commission and Commissioner for the Budget, first of all told the budgets committee of the EP that the results of the referendum in the United Kingdom had “no immediate impact” on the EU budget.
For 2017, the Commission proposes an increase of 1.7% (compared to 2016) of the total level of commitment appropriations, to €157.7 billion. For payment appropriations, the increase will be 6.2% (€134.9 billion).
Managing the migration and refugee crisis. The Commissioner stressed that needs for commitments exceed the ceiling of the financial framework in heading 3 (security and citizenship), hence the need to make use of all possible flexibility.
The draft budget for 2017 will make €5.2 billion available to reinforce the external borders of the Union and deal with the refugee crisis and the problem of illegal migration. €3 billion has been earmarked for actions within the EU: European border guards and coastguards agency, new system of registering people entering and leaving in order to reinforce the management of the borders, revision of the European common asylum regime (in particular, a reform of the Dublin mechanism) and the creation of an EU asylum agency.
There are also provisions of €200 million in 2017 (further to the amount of €300 million in 2016) for the new instrument to provide humanitarian assistance within the EU.
The draft budget earmarks €2.2 billion for actions outside the Union, to tackle the root causes of the flows of refugees. In particular, this envelope includes: €750 million under the Facility for refugees in Turkey, €225 million from the EU budget in the framework of commitments in favour of Lebanon and Jordan, €160 million from the Trust Fund for Syria and macro-financial assistance of €200 million.
Security. The draft 2017 budget provides for considerable resources in this field: €111.7 million to support Europol and €61.8 million to reinforce the security of the institutions of the European Union (on top of the extra €15.8 million for 2016, see below). In 2017, the Commission is proposing to put €25 million into preparatory action for defence research.
Stimulating employment, growth and investment. The envelope proposed specifically to support economic growth stands at €74.6 billion for 2017 (up from 69.8 billion in 2016). There will be €2.66 billion for the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). According to the Commissioner, this instrument has been a huge success and in less than a year, has led to €106.7 billion of investments in 26 EU member states.
Technical adjustments of €4 billion. The Commission has carried out a technical adjustment to the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020, with the effect of increasing it by €4 billion over the period 2007-2020, following an adjustment of the envelopes under the cohesion policy. “There are three major beneficiaries: Italy, Greece and Spain”, Georgieva announced (see other article).
Flexibility instrument. Having looked at all the options to reallocate funding within the ceiling of expenditure under heading 3 (security and citizenship), the Commission concluded that it would be necessary to mobilise the flexibility instrument to top up the funding of the general budget of the EU for the financial year 2017, above the ceiling of heading 3, by €530.0 million, to pay for measures in the field of migration, refugees and security. The Commission proposes that the payment appropriations corresponding to the mobilisation of the flexibility instrument be divided between several different financial years: €238.3 million in 2017, €91.0 million in 2018, €141.9 million in 2019 and €58.8 million in 2020.
Contingency margin. The Commission is proposing to make use, on an exceptional basis, of the contingency margin, to the amount of €1.164 billion. This tool makes it possible to go beyond the ceiling when there is no margin left. The contingency margin stands at 0.03% of the gross national income of the EU (GNI). The Commission is proposing to pay for this by chipping into the margins of heading 2, 'natural resources' (€650 million), and heading 5, 'administration' (€514.4 million).
Solidarity Fund of the EU. In order to ensure that sufficient budgetary resources are available in a timely fashion in the framework of the general EU budget for 2017, the Commission is proposing that this Fund be mobilised to the tune of €50 million for advance payments. This option is available when necessary to ensure the timely availability of budgetary resources. The maximum amount allocated to this fund may not exceed €500 million a year.
Security in 2016. The Commission also adopted a draft amending budget (no. 3) for 2016, providing for the mobilisation of €15.8 million to reinforce security measures in the institutions of the EU (including €5 million for the Commission, €3.5 million for the European schools, and €0.2 million for the EP, for instance), following the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 and in Brussels in March 2016. To avoid budgetary consequences, the Commission is proposing to pay for this €15.8 million by redeploying unused credits under the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)