At an inter-institutional meeting held on Monday 27 March, Günther Oettinger, the European commissioner for the budget, said that budgetary under-implementation stood at €4.8 billion in 2016 in payment appropriations (see EUROPE 11722).
According to the commissioner's services, there is no longer an invoice backlog (at the end of 2014, unpaid invoices stood at €24.7 billion) and late-payment interest has fallen significantly.
However, he explained, commitments outstanding (known by...