Amending budget 2/2016: surplus of the financial year 2015
The European Parliament adopted by 591 votes to 68, with 44 abstentions, a resolution on the Council position on Draft amending budget No 2/2016 of the European Union for the financial year 2016: Entering the surplus of the financial year 2015.
Parliament recalled that the Draft amending budget No 2/2016 aims to enter in the 2016 budget the surplus from the 2015 financial year, amounting to EUR 1 349 million.
The main components of that surplus are a positive outturn on income of EUR 980 million, an under-spending in expenditure of EUR 187 million, and exchange rate differences amounting to EUR 182 million.
To recall, on the revenue side, the two main components are interest on late payments and fines (EUR 180 million) and a positive outturn on own resources (EUR 1 071 million), from which a negative outturn on surpluses, balances and adjustments is deducted (-EUR 537 million).
On the expenditure side, Parliament stated that the under-implementation for Section III (Commission) is relatively low with EUR 78 million for 2015 and EUR 14 million for 2014 carryovers, while it amounts to EUR 94 million for the other institutions. It noted that the high rate of implementation in Section III underlines the pressure on payment appropriations which still represented a key challenge in 2015 and which is expected to reappear in the last years of the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
Parliament observed that the adoption of Draft amending budget No 2/2016 will reduce the share of GNI contributions from Member States to the Union budget in 2016 by EUR 1 349 million. It urged, once again, the Member States to use the opportunity of such a reflow to honour their pledges in relation to the refugee crisis and to match the Union contribution to the two dedicated Union Trust Funds.
It also noted with concern that in spring 2016 Member States have only contributed EUR 82 million to the Africa Trust Fund and EUR 69 million to the Madad Trust Fund on the Syrian crisis, while the Union's contributions stand at EUR 1.8 billion and more than EUR 500 million respectively.
According to Parliament, instead of adjusting the GNI contribution, the Union budget should be enabled to reuse any surplus resulting from under-implementation of appropriations or from fines imposed on companies for breaching Union competition law in order to deal with its financing needs, especially in the context of payment shortages.
While hoping that this matter shall be settled as part of the revision of the MFF, Parliament called on the European Parliament to approve the Council position on Draft amending budget No 2/2016.