Amending budget 9/2013: mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund for Romania, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic

On 3 October 2013, the Commission submitted to the Council draft amending budget (DAB) No 9/2013. It concerns the mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) for an amount of EUR 400.5 million in commitment and payment appropriations in order to provide financial assistance to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic (floods in May and June 2013) and to Romania (drought and forest fires in summer 2012).

The Council accepted the mobilisation of the EUSF in commitment appropriations as proposed by the Commission. In order to be able to respect the global ceiling in payment appropriations, the Council decided to finance the requested payment appropriations by redeployments from the following budget lines:

Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance for Rural Development (IPARD): EUR -32 331 335;

Euratom - European Joint Undertaking for ITER - Fusion for Energy (F4E): EUR -289 200 000;

Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession (ISPA) - Completion of other previous projects (2000 to 2006): EUR -78 987 754.

TOTAL: EUR -400 519 089.

On 30 October 2013, the Council adopted its position on DAB No 9/2013 on the basis of the elements recorded above, as set out in the technical annex to this explanatory memorandum to this draft Council document.