Amending budget 1/2015: revision of the MFF

The European Parliament adopted by 615 votes to 27, with 29 abstentions, a resolution on the Council position on Draft amending budget No 2/2015 of the European Union for the financial year 2015, Section III-Commission.

Parliament recalled that Draft amending budget No 2/2015 relates to the proposal for a Council regulation amending the MFF Regulation, as provided for in its Article 19.

Article 19 of the MFF Regulation provides for a revision of the multiannual financial framework in the case of late adoption of rules or programmes under shared management to transfer allocations not used in 2014 to subsequent years, in excess of the corresponding expenditure ceilings.

Commitment appropriations for programmes under shared management within the meaning of Article 19 of the MFF Regulation lapsed in 2014 for an amount of EUR 21 043 639 478 in current prices which corresponds to the 2014 tranches of programmes that could neither be committed in 2014 nor carried over to 2015. Draft amending budget No 2/2015 provides for the transfer of the largest share of those allocations to the 2015 budget with smaller transfers to be integrated into the Draft Budgets for the years 2016 and 2017.

Increase in commitment appropriations: Draft amending budget No 2/2015 proposes a EUR 16 476.4 million increase in commitment appropriations in 2015 for the various funds under shared management under sub-heading 1b, heading 2 and heading 3. It also proposes an increase of EUR 2.5 million for the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) under heading 4, to preserve similar treatment between contributions from heading 4 and heading 1b to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)  European territorial cooperation (ETC) programmes.

Issue of payment appropriations: Parliament recalled that it is vital for European citizens and for the economies in all Member States that the unused appropriations for the year 2014 can be transferred to subsequent years in order to contribute to the creation of jobs and growth. It welcomed the fact that the unused appropriations for the year 2014 were transferred, to the maximum extent possible, to the financial year 2015 as this will:

• avoid unfair treatment of certain Member States, regions and operational programmes,
• accelerate the implementation and delivery of Cohesion policy,
• help avoid the concentration of payments at the end of the MFF period.

It is concerned however about the long-term impact this one-year postponement will have on the overall situation on payments. It called therefore on the Commission to monitor the implementation closely and to do its utmost to avoid the snowball effect of unpaid bills by presenting adequate proposals to adjust the annual levels of payment appropriations should the need arise.

Members drew attention to the fact that the decision to transfer most of the unused appropriations from 2014 to 2015 may require a flexible approach from the Commission in order to address possible difficulties resulting from an uneven financial profile, which could lead to unused commitments in the period 2014-2020.

Parliament invited the Commission to propose adequate measures, in case such a situation might arise, based on similar past experience that took into account the late approval of programmes.

In so doing, the European Parliament approved the Council position on Draft amending budget No 2/2015 and underlined the need to agree on this Draft amending budget in due time in order to allow for a swift adoption of all programmes concerned.