Amending budget 2/2019: Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+

The Committee on Budgets adopted the report by John HOWARTH (S&D, UK) on the Council position on draft amending budget No 2/2019 of the European Union for the financial year 2019 – Reinforcement of key programmes for EU competitiveness: Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+.

As a reminder, at the insistence of Parliament, the European Parliament and the Council decided, within the context of the budgetary procedure 2019, to budget EUR 100 million in an amending budget in 2019 to reinforce Horizon 2020 and Erasmus.

The Commission has proposed to allocate an additional EUR 80 million to reinforce Horizon 2020 and an additional EUR 20 million to Erasmus+ budget.

More specifically, the proposal seeks to reinforce:

- Item 08 02 01 02 (Strengthening research in future and emerging technologies) with EUR 45.4 million in commitments;

- Item 08 02 03 04 (Achieving a European transport system that is resource-efficient, environmentally friendly, safe and seamless) with EUR 34.6 million in commitments and;

- Item 15 02 01 01 (Promoting excellence and cooperation in the European education and training area and its relevance to the labour market) with EUR 20 million in commitments.

Members took note of the draft amending budget No 2/2019. No reinforcement in payment appropriations has been proposed at this stage.

They noted that, given the programmes’ profiles, while there might be no need to reinforce payment appropriations for Horizon 2020 by the end of year 2019, the reinforced commitment appropriations for Erasmus+ will most probably need to be matched by increased payment appropriations still this year.

The Commission is called on to inform the budgetary authority about how it intends to cover these increased payment needs.

The committee approved the Council position on Draft amending budget No 2/2019.