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2016 general budget: all sections

2015/2132(BUD)

The European Parliament adopted by 516 votes to 179 with 8 abstentions a legislative resolution on the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016 as approved by the Conciliation Committee under the budgetary procedure.

Parliament approved the joint text agreed by the Conciliation Committee, which consisted of the following documents:

  • list of budget lines not modified, compared to the draft budget or the Council's position; 
  • summary figures by financial framework headings; 
  • line by line figures on all budget items; 
  • consolidated document showing the figures and final text of all lines modified during the conciliation.

In so doing, it instructed its President to declare that the European Union's general budget for the financial year 2016 has been definitively adopted and to arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Members confirmed the points issuing from the Conciliation Committee and notably the joint statements by Parliament, the Council and the Commission annexed to the resolution.

These may be summarised as follows;

Joint conclusions: 

Budget 2016:

  • the overall level of commitment appropriations in the 2016 budget is set at EUR 155 004.2 million, leaving a margin below the MFF ceilings for 2016 of EUR 2 331.4 million in commitment appropriations;
  • the overall level of payment appropriations in the 2016 budget is set at EUR 143 885.3 million;
  • the Flexibility Instrument for 2016 is mobilised for an amount of EUR 1 506.0 million in commitment appropriations for heading 3 Security and Citizenship and for an amount of EUR 24.0 million in commitment appropriations for heading 4 Global Europe;

On its part, the Commission estimated the 2016 payment appropriations related to the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument in 2014, 2015 and 2016 at EUR 832.8 million.

Budget 2015: with regard to 2015, this is amended in accordance with Draft Amending Budget 8/2015 and is accepted as proposed by the Commission.

Specific points concerning budget lines in 2016:

-          decentralised agencies: the EU contribution (in commitment appropriations and in payment appropriations) and the number of posts for all decentralised agencies are set at the level proposed by the Commission in the Draft Budget, as amended by Amending Letters 1 and 2/2016. Certain adjustments were agreed with regard to some agencies, such as the Increase of establishment plan posts for the European Chemicals Agency, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the European Medicines Agency, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, the Fundamental Rights Agency, Eurojust, the European Banking Authority and eu.LISA;

-          pilot projects/preparatory actions: a comprehensive package of 89 pilot projects/preparatory actions for an amount of EUR 64.9 million in commitment appropriations is agreed, as proposed by the Parliament;

-          Heading 1a: the amounts for Horizon 2020, COSME and ERASMUS + were increased. As a consequence, the agreed level of commitments is set at EUR 19 010.0 million.

-          Heading 2: commitment appropriations are set at the level proposed by the Commission in the Draft Budget, as amended by Amending Letters 1 and 2/2016 with a further reduction of EUR 140.0 million. The agreed level of commitments is set at EUR 62 484.2 million, leaving a margin of EUR 1 777.8 million under the expenditure ceiling of heading 2.

-          Heading 3: Commitment appropriations are set at the level proposed by the Commission in the Draft Budget, as amended by Amending Letters 1 and 2/2016, and integrating the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument for migration. Consequently, the agreed level of commitments is set at EUR 4 052.0 million, with no margin left under the expenditure ceiling of heading 3 and the mobilisation of EUR 1 506.0 million through the Flexibility Instrument.

-          Heading 4: commitment appropriations are set at the level proposed by the Commission in the Draft Budget, as amended by Amending Letters 1 and 2/2016, integrating certain increases for budget lines linked to migration policy and European neighbourhood policy and EU humanitarian policy, for a total amount of EUR 132.3 million. Accordingly, the agreed level of commitments is set at EUR 9 167.0 million, with no margin left under the expenditure ceiling of heading 4 and the mobilisation of EUR 24.0 million through the Flexibility Instrument.

-          Heading 5: the number of posts in the establishment plans of the Institutions and the appropriations proposed by the Commission in the Draft Budget as amended by Amending Letters 1 and 2/2016 are approved, with the following exceptions: the European Parliament for which its reading is approved, (with a reduction of 9 posts); court of Justice (+ 7 posts). As a consequence, the agreed level of commitments is set at EUR 8 935.2 million, leaving a margin of EUR 547.8 million under the expenditure ceiling of heading 5.

-          Solidarity Funds: commitment appropriations include the mobilisation of EUR 50 million of the European Union Solidarity Fund for the payment of the advances.

-          Payment appropriations: the overall level of payment appropriations in the 2016 budget is set at EUR 143 885.3 million, including EUR 832.8 million related to the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument. The payment appropriations expenditure are reduced by EUR 460.1 million.

Joint declarations: the following joint declarations were approved:

-          The Youth Employment Initiative: the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission recall that reducing youth unemployment remains a high and shared political priority. In the framework of the MFF mid-term review/revision they decided that the Commission would draw lessons from the results of the YEI evaluation, accompanied, as appropriate, by proposals for the continuation of the initiative until 2020.

-          Payment forecast 2016-2020: the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission acknowledge the steps taken to phase out the backlog of outstanding payment claims from the 2007-2013 cohesion programmes, and to improve the monitoring of any backlog of unpaid bills in all headings. They reiterate their commitment to prevent a similar build-up of backlog in the future, including through setting-up an early warning system. They undertake to actively monitor the state of implementation of the 2016 budget, so that the appropriations provided in the budget 2016 will allow the Commission to reduce the year-end backlog of outstanding payment claims for the 2007-2013 cohesion programmes to a level of around EUR 2 billion by the end of 2016. They should also take stock of payment implementation at least three times in 2016 at the political level.