• EL - ελληνικά
  • EN - English
Parliamentary question - E-011168/2013Parliamentary question
E-011168/2013

Level of payments as of 30 September 2013

Question for written answer E-011168-13
to the Commission
Rule 117
Georgios Stavrakakis (S&D)

After the approval of Draft Amending Budget No 6/2012, the European Commission, at the request of the budgetary authority, came forward with Draft Amending Budget No 2/2013 amounting to EUR 11.2 billion, to allow all the legal payment obligations left pending at the end of 2012, as well as those arising before the end of 2013, to be covered in this year’s budget.

At the Ecofin meeting of 14 May 2013, a political agreement was reached to provide the extra funding for the 2013 budget in two tranches, with the first amounting to EUR 7.3 billion. While the Ministers promised to return to the issue later in the year, there has been no formal commitment on the remaining EUR 3.9 billion in Draft Amending Budget 2/2013.

After the political agreement of 27 June 2013 reached by the institutions on the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework (MFF), the Ecofin Council of 9 July 2013 approved the EUR 7.3 billion top-up for the 2013 EU budget and committed itself to taking all necessary additional steps to ensure that the Union’s obligations for 2013 were fully honoured. In this respect, on the basis of a proposal to be made by the Commission in early autumn based on the latest updated estimates regarding payment appropriations, the Council is committed to deciding, without delay, on a further draft amending budget to avoid any shortfall in justified payment appropriations. On 26 September 2013, the Commission issued Draft Amending Budget 8/2013 for the remaining EUR 3.9 billion.

Taking all the above into consideration and given the fact that the level of payments for the 2013 EU budget is EUR 5 billion lower than the Commission’s estimates for payment needs in its 2013 draft budget, could the Commission provide detailed information on the level of payments received by 31 July 2013? More specifically, could the Commission provide information on payments received in the months of January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September 2013, broken down by Member State and policy area/programme?

Moreover, could the Commission also provide a comparison between the Member States’ payment forecasts and the actual payments that have taken place thus far in the year within the framework of the 2013 EU budget, broken down by Member State and by policy area/programme?

OJ C 208, 03/07/2014