The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and in particular Article 314 thereof and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 106a thereof,

–  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), and in particular Articles 37 and 38 thereof,

–  having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2011, as definitively adopted on 15 December 2010(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 6/2011 of the European Union for the financial year 2011, which the Commission presented on 18 October 2011 (COM(2011)0674),

–  having regard to the Council position on Draft amending budget No 6/2011, which the Council established on 30 November 2011 (17631/2011 – C7-0440/2011),

–  having regard to Rules 75b and 75e of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A7-0407/2011),

A.  whereas Draft amending budget No 6/2011 to the general budget 2011 covers, inter alia, reinforcements in commitment appropriations in headings 1 and 4 for a respective amount of EUR 3,25 million and EUR 113,4 million, an increase of payment appropriations to cover needs in heading 1 for an amount of EUR 550,3 million, and an update in the forecast of the revenue;

B.  whereas the Council has modified Draft amending budget No 6/2011 by decreasing to EUR 200 million the total net reinforcement in payment appropriations;

C.  whereas Parliament has persistently stressed, throughout the entire 2011 budgetary procedure, that the overall level of payments advocated by the Council and adopted for the financial year 2011 was insufficient and would not enable all clearly agreed needs to be met;

D.  whereas both branches of the budgetary authority had agreed, during conciliation on the budget for the financial year 2011, on a Joint Statement on payment appropriations committing Parliament and the Council to ‘avoid any shortfall in payment appropriations’;

E.  whereas some payment needs have already been addressed in part through the global transfer in payment appropriations (DEC 34/2011) for a total amount of EUR 719,2 million, and whereas the Commission will soon have to present a new global transfer to address, as much as possible, needs not covered by the agreement on Draft amending budget No 6/2011, i.e. EUR 1 047 million as of 18 November 2011, in order to fulfil the legal obligations of the Union with regard to payment appropriations;

F.  whereas the proposed increase in payment appropriations by EUR 200 million represents only a limited part of the identified supplementary needs until the end of 2011, amounting to EUR 1 642 million as of 18 November 2011;

G.   whereas reinforcements under heading 4 for financial assistance to Palestine, the peace process and UNRWA, and for Banana Accompanying Measures are redeployed from unused appropriations under the Macro-Financial Assistance, and are part of the agreement reached by the conciliation committee on the budget for the financial year 2012;

H.  whereas part of the revenue increase stems from fines and interest on late payments totalling EUR 435 million, i.e. from the enforcement of competition policy;

1.  Takes note of Draft amending budget No 6/2011 and of subsequent reassessments leading to the updating of needs in payment appropriations and possible redeployments in commitment appropriations;

2.  Notes that Draft amending budget No 6/2011, as amended by the Council, reflects the agreement reached by the conciliation committee, which covers both the budget for the financial year 2012 and Draft amending budget No 6/2011;

3.  Deeply regrets the climate of mistrust prevailing during the negotiations between the Commission and the Member States as to the level of extra payment appropriations needed in 2011 for the Commission to be able to fulfil the legal obligations of the Union; requests the Commission to communicate to the two arms of the budgetary authority and to the public in general, what are the consequences of this agreement on the implementation of ongoing programmes; is particularly concerned about the effects of this decision on the running of structural and cohesion funds in the Member States, along with key programmes under the heading ‘Sustainable growth’;

4.  Underlines that the Council's approach is at odds with the processes of the European Semester and a strengthened European economic governance whereby synergies and complementarities between the Union and the national budgets should be sought; is all the more concerned by the stance of the Council since, if the Union is to recover from the current economic and social crisis, forward-looking investments need to be supported;

5.  Expresses its willingness to take part, together with the Council and the Commission, in a stocktaking exercise in order to address potential shortcomings and shortfalls in the implementation of the current multiannual programmes, particularly those under subheadings 1a and 1b.

6.  Reiterates its firm conviction that part of the revenue stemming from fines and interest on late payments, i.e. from the enforcement of competition policy, which is an exclusive Union competence, should be directly put back and reinvested in the Union budget and not returned to the Member States in the context of the balance;

7.  Approves, without amendment, the Council position on Draft amending budget No 6/2011 and instructs its President to declare that Amending budget No 6/2011 has been definitively adopted and to arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union;

8.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

(1) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1. (2) OJ L 68, 15.3.2011. (3) OJ C 139, 14.6.2006, p. 1.