Restoring the credits that had been reduced by the EU Council and revising upwards by €1.7 billion, compared to the draft of the European Commission, the commitment appropriations of the 2023 budget to help in the fight against crises (war in Ukraine, energy, migrants, economy): these are the priorities of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, which adopted, on Monday 3 October, its position on the draft budget plan of the EU for the next year.
The Commission had proposed a package of €185.6 billion in commitment appropriations and €166.3 billion in payment appropriations.
MEPs voted in Strasbourg on Monday evening on the budget amendments accompanying Nicolae Ştefănuță’s (Renew Europe, Romanian) report on the EU’s draft 2023 budget plan. The European Parliament’s vote on the Parliament’s position on the draft 2023 budget plan will take place during the 17-20 October plenary in Strasbourg.
According to the compromise amendments to be put to the vote on Monday evening, the Commission’s draft budget plan would be increased by €1.7 billion in commitment appropriations, including +€700 million for budget lines under Heading 1 of the Single Market (Horizon Europe, transport, energy, etc.)
Special instruments. MEPs call for the full mobilisation of the various budgetary instruments (flexibility instrument, ‘single margin facility’) up to a total of €1.3 billion to provide additional financial means beyond the margins of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027.
The rapporteur also proposes to use Article 15(3) of the Financial Regulation (commitment appropriations corresponding to the amount of ‘decommitments’ as a result of total or partial non-implementation of the corresponding research projects may be made available again to the research programme) for an amount of €836 million.
Furthermore, under Heading 2 (Cohesion, Resilience and Values), it is foreseen to reinforce (+€200 million) the Erasmus+ programme funds to support Ukrainian youth and teachers.
Regarding Heading 3, the Committee on Budgets should ask for the activation of the agricultural crisis reserve “in the interest of young farmers”, due to the effects of the rise in energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine.
The rapporteur also envisages an increase of €100 million in the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (under Heading 4).
In the field of defence and security, the idea is to increase the appropriations originally proposed by the Commission by €81 million (Heading 5).
As regards Heading 6 (Europe in the world), the desired increase is €465 million, of which €250 million in the form of humanitarian aid, in view of the conflict in Ukraine.
Finally, under Heading 7 (administrative expenditure), MEPs want to reverse the cuts made by the EU Council.
The EU Council had reduced commitment appropriations by €1.64 billion and payment appropriations by €530 million compared to the Commission’s proposal.
The EPP group’s negotiator on the 2023 budget, Janusz Lewandowski of Poland, said before the votes on the amendments: “There is not enough EU money in the proposed 2023 budget to help Member States fully protect households and businesses from the impact of the current crises in Europe”.
The EPP group wants to use all available budgetary means (margins, flexibility, 'single margin facility' and ‘decommitments’) to help compensate for the effects of crises by investing EU money in an efficient way.
Furthermore, Janusz Lewandowski calls for an urgent revision of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027.
Link to the explanations of the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/3d4 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)