On Tuesday 7 June, the European Commission adopted the draft EU budget plan for 2023, which sets €185.6 billion in commitment appropriations (1.14% of the EU’s gross national income, or GNI), an increase of 2.1% compared to the 2022 commitment appropriations.
The resulting total margin under the 2023 ceiling for commitments in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) amounts to €446.4 million.
The European Commission says that an additional €113.9 billion is planned for NextGenerationEU grants, making a total of “€300 billion”, said Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn. One third of expenditure is for the climate, he said.
Payment appropriations amount to €166.3 billion, which corresponds to 1.02% of GNI. This represents a decrease of 2.6% compared to the payment appropriations in the 2022 budget, due to a “decrease in the payments on outstanding commitments for the 2014-2020 Cohesion programmes, following high amounts of payments in recent years”, explains the Commission’s document on the 2023 draft budget plan.
The Commission will make further proposals later this year to provide funding to address the impact of the war in Ukraine, based on a more precise assessment of needs, in line with the European Council conclusions of 31 May 2022.
Johannes Hahn said that in the autumn the Commission will have a better assessment of the support needed for Ukraine in terms of humanitarian aid or the security of (food) supplies.
The EU has mobilised around €4.6 billion since the start of the Russian aggression to support Ukraine’s overall economic, social and financial resilience in the form of macrofinancial assistance, budget support, emergency assistance, crisis response and humanitarian aid. This includes €1.2 billion in emergency microfinancial assistance provided since February 2022 and €2 billion in military assistance measures provided under the European Peace Facility, which will be used to reimburse Member States for their in-kind military support to Ukraine.
The revision of the MFF will take place “before 2024”, promised Mr Hahn, who also mentioned the problem of inflation.
The 2023 draft budget plan includes:
€103.5 billion in NextGenerationEU ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ grants to support the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and to address the challenges posed by the war in Ukraine;
€53.6 billion for the Common Agricultural Policy;
€46.1 billion for regional development and cohesion;
€14.3 billion to support the EU’s partners around the world, including €12 billion under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI - Global Europe), €2.5 billion for the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III) and €1.6 billion for humanitarian aid;
€13.6 billion for research and innovation, including €12.3 billion for Horizon Europe (plus €1.8 billion in additional grants under NextGenerationEU);
€4.8 billion for European strategic investments, including €341 million for InvestEU, €2.9 billion for the Connecting Europe Facility and €1.3 billion for the Digital Europe programme;
€4.8 billion for people, social cohesion and values, including €3.5 billion for Erasmus+;
€2.3 billion for the environment and the fight against climate change;
€2.2 billion for space expenditure, mainly for the European space programme;
€2.1 billion for border protection, including €1.1 billion for the Integrated Border Management Fund (IBMF) and €839 million (total EU contribution) for the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex);
€1.6 billion for migration-related expenditure, including €1.4 billion for aid to migrants and asylum seekers.
Link to the document: https://aeur.eu/f/1yr (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)