Amending the Budget to cover research, education, support to businesses and Cohesion Policy - Main contents
European Commission
Press release
Brussels, 28 May 2014
Amending the Budget to cover research, education, support to businesses and Cohesion Policy
The Commission is proposing to increase the 2014 level of payment appropriations by EUR 4.738 billion to cover legal obligations in research and innovation, education and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. Higher reimbursement claims from Member States in cohesion policy have to be addressed as well as the difficult situation in the Ukraine. The Commission is proposing to use unallocated margins under the payment ceiling and recourse to the special instrument, the Contingency Margin 1 . However, the net cost to the Member States will be significantly lower, EUR 2.165 billion, as the Commission will cash in more than EUR 1.5 billion in additional revenue, mainly from competition fines as well as more than EUR 1 billion resulting from the implementation of the 2013 budget.
Draft amending budget 3 addresses the need for additional payments for EU programmes that have been beefed up to support Europe's economic recovery, growth and jobs: Horizon 2020 (research) , the Youth Employment Initiative, Erasmus+ (education) , COSME (support to businesses) . Furthermore, several legislative acts have been concluded after the adoption of the 2014 budget and require more payment appropriations. Finally, some other programmes require a top-up to cover the requirements of the past year.
Today's proposal also covers Cohesion policy as some EUR 3.4 billion is required to meet unusually high reimbursement claims from Member States, as well as the Support package to Ukraine (EUR 250 million to cover the payment of the first instalment in June 2014.
Draft amending budget 3 in detail (in EUR million)
Payment appropriations
by MFF Heading
Final budget 2013
Voted budget 2014
DAB 3
Proposed increase compared with 2014 budget
Use of Unallocated Margin in 2014
Use of Contingency Margin
Total
1a
Competiveness for Growth and Jobs
12 778
11 441
305
282
587
5,1 %
1b
Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion
56 350
50 951
3 395
3 395
6,7 %
2
Sustainable Growth: Natural Resources
57 814
56 459
6
100
106
0,2 %
3
Security and Citizenship
1 894
1 677
4
Global Europe
6 967
6 191
401
250
651
10,5 %
5
Administration
8 418
8 406
6
Compensations
75
29
Total
144 295
135 155
711
4 027
4 738
3,5 %
Of which headings 1a, 2 and 4
77 559
74 091
711
632
1 343
1,8 %
NOTE:
This is the third proposal to amend the 2014 budget.
Draft amending budget 1 was adopted in February 2014 and did not affect the overall size of the budget (reshuffling of agreed amounts within the voted budget).
Draft amending budget 2 was adopted in May 2014 and covered the surplus from the 2013 budget (EUR 1 billion)
MORE INFORMATION
Website of the EU BUDGET: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/index_en.cfm
Contacts:
Patrizio Fiorilli (+32 2 295 81 32) - @ECspokesbudget
For the public: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 or by email
Contingency Margin : A new mechanism agreed for the 2014-2020 period allowing the Commission to call for additional funding in case of unforeseen circumstances. 0.03 % of the EU-28's GNI (EUR 4 027 million in 2014) can be added to an annual budget. Future payment ceilings must be decreased by the same amount to ensure that the overall ceiling for the whole period remains unchanged.