REPORT on Council's position on draft amending budget No 4/2010 of the European Union for the financial year 2010, Section III – Commission
11.6.2010 - (10930/2010 – C7‑0153/2010 – 2010/2056(BUD))
Committee on Budgets
Rapporteur: László Surján
PR_BUD_DAB
MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION
on Council's position on Draft amending budget No 4/2010 of the European Union for the financial year 2010, Section III – Commission
(10930/2010 – C7‑0153/2010 – 2010/2056(BUD))
The European Parliament,
– having regard to Articles 310 and 314 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 106a of the Euratom Treaty,
– having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities[1] ('the Financial Regulation'), and particularly Article 15(3) and Articles 37 and 38 thereof,
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2010, as finally adopted on 17 December 2009[2],
– having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management[3],
– having regard to Draft amending budget No 4 to the general Budget 2010 , which the Commission presented on 16 April 2010 (COM(2010)0169),
– having regard to Council's position on Draft amending budget No 4/2010 established on 11 June 2010 (10930/2010 - C7-0153/2010),
– having regard to Rules 75b and 75e of its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A7-0200/2010),
A. whereas Draft amending budget No 4/2010 aims to enter in the 2010 budget the surplus of the 2009 financial year, amounting to EUR 2 253 591 199,37,
B. whereas the main components of this surplus are an over-registering in revenue of EUR 400 703 258, an under-spending in expenditure of EUR 1 667 346 181 and positive exchange rate differences for EUR 185 541 760,
C. whereas for heading 1 the under-spending of payment appropriations in 2009 amounted to EUR 451 million, for heading 2 to EUR 244 million, for heading 3 to EUR 106 million, for heading 4 to EUR 603 million and for heading 5 to EUR 263 million,
D. whereas the combined effect of the very tight budgetary margins and emerging financial needs is to put at risk existing political priorities, while significant under-spending reduces at the same time the delivery of EU policies,
E. whereas the calculation of 2009 budgetary under-implementation should take account of both Amending budgets Nos 4/2010 and 10/2009,
1. Takes note of Draft amending budget No 4/2010 devoted solely to the budgeting of the 2009 surplus, in accordance with Article 15 of the Financial Regulation;
2. Stresses that the actual under-implementation of the 2009 budget is not limited to the surplus presented in Draft amending budget No 4/2010 but amounts to more than EUR 5 000 000 000, taking also into acount Amending budget No 10/2009; warns therefore that the year-end Amending budgets reducing the level of payment appropriations, while diminishing accordingly the global contribution of the Member States to the financing of the EU Budget, give a distorted picture of budgetary implementation;
3. Approves Council's position on Draft amending budget No 4/2010 unamended and instructs its President to declare that Amending budget No 4/2010 has been definitely adopted and arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union;
4. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
According to Article 37 of the Financial Regulation, the Commission may present preliminary draft amending budgets, if there are "unavoidable, exceptional or unforeseen circumstances". Par. 3 states that "the budgetary authority shall discuss them with due account for their urgency". Article 15, par 3 Financial Regulation stipulates that the surplus from each financial year, whether surplus or deficit, is entered as revenue or expenditure in the budget of the subsequent financial year through an amending budget to be submitted by the Commission within 15 days following the submission of the provisional accounts.
On Friday 16 April 2010, Commission adopted draft amending budget n° 04/2010 which aims at budgeting the surplus resulting from the implementation of the budget year 2009.
The implementation of the budget year 2009 shows a surplus of 2 253 591 199 EUR. The budgeting of the surplus will diminish accordingly the global contribution of the Member States to the financing of the EU Budget.
The surplus
The implementation of the budget year 2009 shows a surplus of EUR 2 253 591 199 which mainly results from:
- Higher than expected revenues (+ EUR 400 703 257,66);
- Under-implementation of payments appropriations (- EUR 1 667 346 181,32);
- Exchange rate differences (+ EUR 185 541 760,39).
The unspent payment appropriations can be further broken down as follows:
- for Heading 1: EUR 451 million;
- for Heading 2 to EUR 244 million;
- for Heading 3 to EUR 106 million;
- for Heading 4 to EUR 603 million and
- for Heading 5 to EUR 263 million.
Appraisal
This surplus results from the existing gap between the EU budget as voted by the budgetary authority and its actual implementation. As shown by the table below, annual budget surpluses are increasing since 2007, despite those amending budgets presented in the course of the budget years to reduce the level of payment appropriations and the year-end surpluses.
(million EUR)
|
Year |
Surplus |
AB adjusting PA |
Total under-implementation |
|
|
|
2007 |
1 529 |
- 1 651 |
3 180 |
|
|
|
2008 |
1 796 |
- 4 891 |
6 687 |
|
|
|
2009 |
2 254 |
- 2 769 |
5 023 |
|
|
The downwards evolution of the surplus since 2002, as presented in the table below, is mainly due to the introduction of such year-end amending budget since budget year 2003, which reduce budgeted payments in view of updated implementation estimates.
Without such year-end amending budgets, the evolution of annual surpluses would read as follows.
In addition to distorting the result of the EU budget implementation (see above), its direct effect is to lower the contributions from Member States to the EU budget already in the course of the budget year. Without such an amending budget (n° 10/2009 last year), 2009 surplus would have been above EUR 5 billion, mainly due to under-spending.
Draft amending budget n°4/2010 diminishes the global contribution of the Member States to the financing of the EU Budget accordingly. For budget year 2009, the amount of EUR 2 254 million will be distributed in the following way:
|
Member State |
Surplus of the 2009 budget (€ million) |
Member State |
Surplus of the 2009 budget (€ million) |
|
|
Belgium |
64,8 |
Luxembourg |
5,5 |
|
|
Bulgaria |
6,5 |
Hungary |
16,0 |
|
|
Czech Republic |
24,4 |
Malta |
1,1 |
|
|
Denmark |
45,9 |
Netherlands |
110,6 |
|
|
Germany |
459,1 |
Austria |
52,1 |
|
|
Estonia |
2,5 |
Poland |
54,6 |
|
|
Ireland |
25,7 |
Portugal |
29,5 |
|
|
Greece |
46,2 |
Romania |
24,8 |
|
|
Spain |
196,2 |
Slovenia |
6,9 |
|
|
France |
371,6 |
Slovak Republic |
13,2 |
|
|
Italy |
287,9 |
Finland |
34,2 |
|
|
Cyprus |
3,4 |
Sweden |
56,1 |
|
|
Latvia |
3,4 |
United Kingdom |
306,2 |
|
|
Lithuania |
5,0 |
Total |
2 254 |
|
As presented above, the amounts at stake are very significant and should be considered in the context of both the very tight margins of the EU budget and all the additional financing needs emerging notably from Member States and Council's decisions.
The existing disconnection between the resources of the EU budget and emerging financial needs and commitments creates budgetary tensions and gaps that hard to fill without jeopardizing some other EU priorities. This has recently been the case for GMES, the three new financial authorities, Bananas accompanying measures, the Globalisation Fund, only to name a few. In this context, your Rapporteur cannot help considering such an amount in view of the very tense budgetary situation, for Budget 2010 and following budgets in the current MFF.
At this stage, the theoretical questions of 1) possible alternatives to such a transfer to Member States, 2) the latter's automatic character, without political debate, 3) the need for the entire amount of the surplus to be paid back should, in your Rapporteur's view, be considered by the Committee.
Your Rapporteur would also like to stress that, thanks to the year-end amending budgets adjusting the level of payments, Member States already pay less than their initial foreseen contribution to the EU budget for any given year. From a Member States' point of view, the possible reuse of this surplus would not increase their expenditure but rather decrease unexpected revenues.
Finally, your Rapporteur wishes to draw BUDG members' attention to the possible legal limitations that apply to EP's action in this respect, both concerning any possible amendments to this amending budget and the deadlines for adopting it, as well as the possible reallocation of these unspent funds, bearing in mind that freezing them would not be acceptable in times of economic and social crises.
RESULT OF FINAL VOTE IN COMMITTEE
|
Date adopted |
2.6.2010 |
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Result of final vote |
+: –: 0: |
29 0 0 |
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Members present for the final vote |
Marta Andreasen, Francesca Balzani, Reimer Böge, Giovanni Collino, Jean-Luc Dehaene, José Manuel Fernandes, Eider Gardiazábal Rubial, Salvador Garriga Polledo, Jens Geier, Ivars Godmanis, Ingeborg Gräßle, Estelle Grelier, Jutta Haug, Sidonia Elżbieta Jędrzejewska, Jan Kozłowski, Alain Lamassoure, Giovanni La Via, Vladimír Maňka, Barbara Matera, Nadezhda Neynsky, Dominique Riquet, László Surján, Derek Vaughan, Angelika Werthmann, Jacek Włosowicz |
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Substitute(s) present for the final vote |
Paul Rübig |
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Substitute(s) under Rule 187(2) present for the final vote |
Peter Jahr, Andres Perello Rodriguez, Britta Reimers |
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