Amending budget 2/2011: 2010 budget surplus

The Committee on Budgets adopted the report drafted by Sidonia Elżbieta JĘDRZEJEWSKA (EPP, PL) in which it calls on the European Parliament to adopt, unamended, the Council's position on Draft amending budget No 3/2011.

It recalls that Draft amending budget No 3/2011 aims to enter in the 2011 budget the surplus from the 2010 financial year, amounting to EUR 4 539 394 283.

They also recall that the major part of the income side (EUR 1.28 billion out of EUR 1.8 billion) comes from interest on late payments and fines. The committee is of the firm conviction that the part of income calculated from interest on late payments and fines is not to be considered as a surplus and should therefore not be deducted from the Member States' contributions (own resources based on GNI).

Members consider, on the contrary, that such income, stemming from the enforcement of EU competition policy, should be directly put back and reinvested in the EU budget. They approve however the Council's position on Draft amending budget No 3/2011 as unamended. They are determined to promote and defend this principle in the forthcoming negotiations on annual and multiannual budgets.