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Adjustments in expenditure, update of revenues and other technical updates

2026/0314(BUD)

The European Commission’s Draft Amending Budget No 3 for 2026 proposes adjustments to the Union budget’s expenditure and revenue. It is presented under the annual budgetary procedure; the European Parliament and the Council must adopt the amending budget.

Overall budgetary impact

The proposal provides for a net increase of EUR 2.180 billion in commitment appropriations and EUR 4.162 billion in payment appropriations. It also updates revenue by entering additional fines, penalty payments and traditional own resources, resulting in a proposed EUR 1.703 billion reduction in Member States’ gross national income (GNI)-based contributions for 2026.

The figures concerning the reintroduction of suspended cohesion-policy commitments for Hungary are conditional on the Council lifting the suspension and on a subsequent technical adjustment of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

Cohesion and rural development payments

The proposal provides for EUR 4.206 billion in additional payment appropriations to meet higher-than-expected implementation needs:

  • EUR 2 billion for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF);
  • EUR 2 billion for the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+);
  • EUR 206 million for rural-development interventions under Common Agricultural Policy strategic plans, financed through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

The additional cohesion funding is intended to reduce the backlog of payment claims at the end of 2026 and limit pressure on the 2027 budget.

Subject to the Council decision on Hungary, the proposal also provides for reinstating EUR 2.201 billion in commitment appropriations suspended in 2024 and 2025. These concern the ERDF, the Cohesion Fund, the ESF+ and the Just Transition Fund. Commitments suspended for 2022 and 2023 cannot be reinstated because they have been definitively cancelled under the applicable time limit.

Agriculture, fisheries and animal-health measures

The proposal provides for EUR 40 million in commitment and payment appropriations for the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), mainly to cover higher market-related expenditure in the fruit and vegetables sector and ensure timely reimbursement to Member States.

It proposes EUR 47 million in additional commitment appropriations under the Food Chain strand of the Single Market Programme. This would support Member States’ emergency measures against animal diseases, including highly pathogenic avian influenza and African swine fever. No additional payment appropriations are requested for 2026, as most co-financing payments are expected in 2027. A further EUR 78 million is envisaged through Amending Letter No 1/2027.

The proposal reduces fisheries-related appropriations by EUR 108.4 million in commitments and EUR 83.1 million in payments. This reflects the expected non-conclusion in 2026 of protocols with Gabon, Mauritania and Morocco under Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements, as well as lower contributions to regional fisheries management organisations.

Migration, programmes and decentralised agencies

The proposal transfers EUR 900 000 in commitment and payment appropriations from an administrative reserve to the operational line of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). The transfer would reinforce the Thematic Facility because the regulation on the return of third-country nationals has been delayed.

It also proposes technical reallocations involving decentralised agencies:

  • EUR 2.4 million would be returned from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to the LIFE programme because of delayed implementation of the “One Substance, One Assessment” package and revised water legislation. A further EUR 1.7 million already paid to ECHA would be recovered as internal assigned revenue and carried over for the agency’s 2027 information-technology needs.
  • EUR 551 000 would be returned from a reserve for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to the EU4Health Programme, following reduced needs linked to the delayed Critical Medicines Act.
  • EUR 98 000 in commitments would be returned from a reserve for the European Union Customs Authority (EUCA) to the Customs programme; EUR 581 000 in payment appropriations would return to the budget because of delays in establishing the authority.
  • EUR 400 000 in commitments and payments would be redeployed from the Connecting Europe Facility transport strand to the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), following new tasks on railway infrastructure capacity. The proposal also envisages two additional establishment-plan posts and two contract agents for ERA in 2026.
  • The establishment plan of the European Maritime Safety Agency would be adjusted by converting one AST 9 post into one AD 6 post, without budgetary impact.

Revenue and financing

The proposal enters EUR 6.065 billion in definitive fines and penalty payments paid by October 2026, an increase of EUR 4.765 billion compared with Amending Budget No 2/2026. This includes EUR 4.125 billion in competition fines, EUR 234 million in penalty payments and lump sums imposed on Member States, and EUR 406 million in related interest.

It also provides for EUR 1.1 billion in additional traditional own resources, reflecting customs-duty receipts above forecast between January and September 2026. Together with the expenditure changes, these revenue updates would reduce total GNI-based own-resource contributions from EUR 135.873 billion to EUR 134.170 billion.

The proposal estimates 2026 payment appropriations linked to the Flexibility Instrument mobilised between 2023 and 2026 at EUR 2.286 billion.

This summary was AI-generated and human-reviewed.