The European Parliament’s rapporteurs presented on Thursday 9 February the changes they want to make to the initial proposal to revise the financial Regulation.
Parliament’s Committees on Budget and Budgetary Control discussed the draft report by Nils Ušakovs (S&D, Latvian) and Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, German) which improves the proposal in several aspects (see EUROPE 12954/27).
“It is time to revise the financial Regulation to ensure that everyone plays by the rules and that the budget is not misused”, said Mr Ušakovs. Parliament must be taken seriously in its role as co-legislator and it must have a say in lending and borrowing, he added.
With regard to external assigned revenue, the rapporteurs welcome the fact that the Commission proposes an Annex as an integral part of the budget setting out the budget lines for which assigned revenue is foreseen and the estimated amount. They propose that the information in this annex be broken down by specific categories of assigned revenue.
The suggested amendments should introduce supervision of the Commission’s borrowing and lending operations in the form of an annual debt ceiling which the budgetary authority can set (and revise as appropriate) as part of the annual budgetary procedure. The draft report foresees that the principle of social conditionality applies horizontally to EU funds.
Decommitment. The rapporteurs propose that the re-use of decommitted appropriations following the total or partial non-implementation of projects should be extended to all appropriations.
The draft report introduces amendments to give Parliament an appropriate role in the establishment, oversight and scrutiny of trust funds.
The draft report is expected to be adopted on 28 March in Parliament’s competent committees, before a vote in plenary in April.
Link to the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/59z (Original in French by Lionel Changeur)