New General Budget of the European Union for the financial year 2021
The Committee on Budgets adopted the report by Pierre LARROUTUROU (S&D, FR) and Olivier CHASTEL (Renew, BE) on the Council position on the second draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2021.
The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament approve the Council's position on the second draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2021 and the joint statements annexed to the resolution.
Budget 2021
According to the elements for joint conclusions:
- the overall level of commitment appropriations in the 2021 budget is set at EUR 164 251.5 million. Overall, this leaves a margin below the MFF ceilings for 2021 of EUR 778.8 million in commitment appropriations;
- the overall level of payment appropriations in the 2021 budget is set at EUR 166 060.5 million. Overall, this leaves a margin below the MFF ceilings for 2021 of EUR 2 001.4 million in payment appropriations;
- the Flexibility Instrument for 2021 is mobilised in commitment appropriations for an amount of EUR 76.4 million for heading 2b Resilience and Values.
The 2021 payment appropriations related to the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are estimated by the Commission at EUR 628.5 million.
The draft elements for joint conclusions include five statements, including on tackling child poverty under the European Social Fund + and on tackling the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the sectors, such as tourism and SMEs, and people most hit.
Increase of EUR 185 million obtained in the conciliation negotiations
The report welcomed the increase of EUR 185 million on top of the levels of the first DB as modified by amending letter No 1/2020 obtained in the conciliation negotiations correspond to Parliament’s main political priorities.
The increases include:
- EUR 60.3 million for the Connecting Europe Facility- Transport;
- EUR 42 million for LIFE;
- EUR 25.7 million for the Digital Europe Programme;
- EUR 6.6 million for the Rights and Values Programme, of which EUR 4.8 million is for Daphne);
- EUR 2.7 million for the Justice programme;
- EUR 25 million for Humanitarian Aid, as part of the EUR 500 million reinforcement for the period from 2021 to2027 as agreed in the context of the MFF;
- EUR 10.2 million for UNRWA under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI);
- EUR 7.3 million for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office mainly for staff reinforcements.
Amending letter No 1/2020 had already incorporated increases for the Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ and EU4Health programmes to reflect the outcome of the MFF negotiations.
The report welcomed the overall level of payment appropriations agreed for 2021 represents an increase of 1.2% compared to Budget 2020. It underlined the importance of the joint statement on payments appropriations in which the Parliament and the Council commit to take necessary decisions in due time for justified needs.
Members also welcomed the fact that the Conciliation Committee agreed, for the first time, to make EUR 20 million in commitment appropriations available again on the research budget lines.
The report noted that the level of appropriations in Budget 2021 for the Parliament is set at EUR 2 063 million.