Background on the difference between commitments and payments
Parliament is raising the EU budget for 2011 by no more than 1.1%. It focuses on "commitments" because these are the real budgetary decisions. Commitments are legal promises to spend money on certain projects, contracts, research, etc - either in the same year as the commitment or later. "Payments" refers to the money that the EU actually expects to pay out in a given year. This background note looks at the implications of cutting payments, as opposed to commitments.
Cutting payments now, while commitments remain the same, would simply mean having to pay the bills later. The European Commission is the institution which is best placed to ascertain which payments are needed a certain year, on the basis of the progress made in the execution of all relevant contracts, projects, etc.
Commitments and payments
The EU budget has two types of budgeting figures, commitments and payments.
The proposed figures for 2011 are, per institution:
|
2011 budget positions (all figures in million €) |
Commission |
Council |
Parliament |
|
Payments |
130,135.9 |
126,527.1 |
130,558.9 |
|
Commitments |
142,565.2 |
141,777.3 |
143,069.6 |
By suggesting a budget only slightly above the Commission's draft budget, Parliament broke with its tradition of proposing a budget above the limits of the long-term budget (also known as the "financial perspective" or multiannual financial framework, MFF), both in total and in all separate headings.