Amending budget 5/2024: adjustment in payment appropriations, update of revenues and other technical updates

PURPOSE: to present Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No. 5 to the General Budget 2024 - adjustment in payment appropriations, update of revenues and other technical updates.

CONTENT: the main purpose of DAB 5 for the year 2024 is to update both the expenditure and revenue side of the budget.

Expenditure side

The proposed changes on the expenditure side of the budget concern the following elements:

- increased needs in payment appropriations for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for a total amount of EUR 2.9 billion, including in relation to the reprogramming related to the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP);

- sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs): as several of these agreements were still subject to negotiations when the budget 2024 was established, an amount of EUR 49.9 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 25.8 million in payment appropriations remains available in the form of reserves to cover for the agreements and protocols with regard to fisheries between the Union and the governments of specific partner third countries that are not yet adopted;

- increased appropriations relating to the most recent estimates for the update of remuneration, as follows: (a) heading 7: an increase for the level of the administrative expenditure for the Committee of the Regions by EUR 1.3 million; an increase for the pensions of all institutions by EUR 67.2 million, also due to a higher number of pension beneficiaries; (b) outside heading 7: an increase of the EU contribution to several decentralised agencies by EUR 12.1 million;

- an adjustment of the EU contribution to several decentralised agencies linked to implementation or other specific reasons, as follows: (i) an increase of the EU contribution to the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) by EUR 1 million in commitment appropriations to reinforce its cybersecurity, offset against a reduction of the Internal Security Fund (ISF); (ii) an increase of the EU contribution to the European Union Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice (eu-LISA) by EUR 17 million in commitment appropriations; (iii) a decrease of the commitment appropriations allocated to the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) due to the revised needs for the appropriations in the first year of its set-up, following delays in the recruitments; (iv) a return of EUR 2.8 million in commitment and payment appropriations to the LIFE programme.

Revenue side

On the revenue side, this DAB incorporates EUR 2 815 million of definitive fines and penalty payments paid until 30 September 2024. As a result, the overall impact on the revenue side is a net increase in the GNI contributions of EUR 139.9 million.

Financing

Overall, the net impact of this DAB 5/2024 is an increase of EUR 44.5 million in commitment appropriations and of EUR 2 954.8 million in payment appropriations under the 2024 budget.