Draft amending budget No 3/2025: adjustment in payment appropriations, update of revenues and other technical updates
The purpose of Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 3 for the year 2025 is to update both the expenditure and revenue side of the budget.
1. Expenditure side
The main changes concern:
Increase in payment appropriations:
- EUR +2 billion for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF);
- EUR +0.7 billion for the European Social Fund plus (ESF+);
- EUR +357 million for the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI).
These amounts could not be included in the redeployments proposed on 3 October 2025.
Updating the needs for sustainable fisheries agreements: at the time the 2025 budget was drawn up, several agreements and protocols implementing these agreements were still under negotiation. The Commission therefore proposes to cancel the amounts in reserve that will not be needed in 2025, namely EUR 39.9 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 22.4 million in payment appropriations.
Decreased commitments for:
- The customs control instrument, due to delays affecting implementation in Member States. Changes in priorities have led to a reduction in the needs for the instrument in 2025, amounting to EUR 78.03 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 47.86 million in payment appropriations;
- The technical support instrument, due to the efficiency gains resulting from competitive procurement procedures. For 2025, it is proposed to reduce commitment appropriations by EUR 5 million;
- The Ukraine facility: according to the latest forecasts, a surplus of payment appropriations of almost EUR 1.2 billion is expected to be recorded by the end of 2025. While about EUR 0.7 billion of this surplus is to be carried over to 2026, the balance (EUR 469 million) can be carried over to 2027, based on revised disbursement assumptions.
Adjustment of the EU contribution to several decentralised agencies:
- Reduction of funding for the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA): given that most recruitment took place only in the last months of 2025, the budget allocated to personnel costs will not be fully utilised. It is therefore proposed to reduce the AMLA's budget by EUR 600 000 in commitment and payment appropriations for 2025.
- Reimbursement of funds by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) due to delays in the retail investment strategy. The amount of reserves allocated to EIOPA and ESMA, totalling EUR 379 000 and EUR 484 000 respectively, will be reimbursed.
- Strengthening of commitment and payment appropriations, amounting to EUR 700 000, for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to cover the financial impact of exchange rate fluctuations.
- Reduction of funding allocated to the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA): given that the EAA is expected to begin most of its activities in 2026, it is proposed to reduce commitment appropriations by EUR 48 million and payment appropriations by EUR 45 million. The returned funds will be transferred to the thematic facility of the Asylum and Migration Fund (AMIF).
- Return of commitment and payment appropriations (EUR 6.4 million) to the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE) programme by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA), due to delays in the adoption of proposals relating to integrated water management/the ‘zero pollution’ package, green-claims and forest monitoring.
- Return of commitment and payment appropriations (EUR 1.791 million) to the ‘Transport’ programme of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) due to delays in the adoption of the package of measures on maritime safety.
- Reimbursement of commitment (EUR 0.4 million) and payment appropriations (EUR 0.8 million) to the Single Market Programme (SMP) Food line) by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) due to delays in the adoption of the proposal on new genomic techniques.
Overall impact on spending:
- Commitment appropriations: EUR -123.7 million;
- Payment appropriations: EUR +2.517 million.
2. Revenue side
On the revenue side, this DAB incorporates an additional EUR 1 185.1 million of definitive fines and penalty payments paid until 30 September 2025 and EUR 1 300 million of the estimated Traditional Own Resources (TOR) surplus.
The overall impact on the revenue side is thus an increase in GNI contributions of EUR 31.9 million.