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 their French acronym, RAL) increased significantly, to €238 billion at the end of 2016. RAL, which is expected to increase further in 2017, represents the sum of commitments contracted that has not yet given rise to payments.
Of the €4.8 billion not yet implemented, €4.3 billion come from cohesion policy programmes, in which payments made have reached only around half of the anticipated level.
Various MEPs have expressed concerns regarding budgetary under-implementation in 2016 and have called on the Commission to take action to speed up payments.
Implementation falls short by €12.1 billion. Budgetary under-implementation in 2016 actually stands at €12.1 billion, taking account of the drop arising from amending budget no. 4 for 2016 (reduction of €7.3 billion in credits). This is a reversal as, at the end of 2014, there was a shortage in payment appropriations of nearly €25 billion.
The Maltese Presidency of the Council is reported to have asked the Commission to submit its analysis on the payments situation earlier and has suggested examining the reasons behind the delays in implementing the cohesion policy programmes (late adoption of legal acts and changes to various provisions). The Commission is called upon to submit an update on the implementation of the budget before the Council reaches its position on the draft 2018 budget, which it will do in September 2017. The Commission is to adopt its draft EU budget for 2018 on 30 May. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)