Amending budget 4/2011: migration and refugee flows; own resources

The Committee on Budgets adopted the report drafted by Sidonia Elżbieta JĘDRZEJEWSKA (EPP, PL) in which it calls on the European Parliament to approve, without amendment, the Council’s position on Draft amending budget No 4/2011 of the European Union for the financial year 2011, Section III – Commission.

Members take note of Draft amending budget No 4/2011 and approve it without amendment. 

They recall that the aim of Draft amending budget No 4/2011 to the general budget 2011 is twofold, namely:

• a reinforcement of appropriations under sub-heading 3a;
• a revision of the forecast of traditional own resources.

The reinforcement of commitment appropriations by nearly EUR 41.1 million for the management of migration and refugee flows (through the Frontex Agency, the External Borders Fund, the European Return Fund and the European Refugee Fund) is part of a multiform response of the EU to the political developments in Southern Mediterranean countries.

The increase in commitment appropriations is net and in line with the principle of ‘new appropriations for new tasks’. The proposed concomitant reinforcement of payment appropriations by EUR 43.9 million is rendered possible by redeployments from under-implemented payments from the European Economic Recovery Plan – Energy network.

Members stipulate that the under-implemented payments from the above-mentioned budget item will have been exhausted through the adoption of amending Budget No 2/2011, Draft amending budget 4/2011, and several transfers and that any potential forthcoming requirements for payments for the year 2011 should be presented taking into account the Joint Statement on payment appropriations adopted by the two branches of the budgetary authority.

At the same time, the committee notes, with great surprise, the contradictory positions taken by the Council, which approved reinforcements of several programmes under subheading 3a in DAB No 4/2011 but takes an opposite position on the very same instruments for the financial year 2012 by reducing appropriations.

It recalls, in that respect, that consistency and coherence of EU commitments on its instruments are prerequisites for efficient and optimised spending, which is much sought after in a tense and constrained budgetary environment.