PURPOSE: definitive adoption of amending budget No 6 of the European Union for the financial year 2012.

ACT: Decision 2013/83/EU, Euratom.

CONTENT: the European Parliament definitively adopted amending budget 6/2012 of the European Union, in accordance with its resolution of 12 December 2012 (please refer to the summary of the resolution).

This amending budget aims to:

update the forecast of revenue after the latest revision of the forecasts of own resources and other revenue; increase payment appropriations across headings 1a, 1b, 2, 3a and 4 of the multi-annual financial framework, with the aim of meeting outstanding needs to the end of the year .

The net effect on the Member States’ contributions to the EU budget will be EUR +2.9 billion. This amount, well below the initial amount foreseen by the Commission in its draft budget, creates a significant difference in payment appropriations to ensure the payments during 2012. It is for this reason that the interinstitutional trilogue was committed to adopting a new amending budget. Its main aim being to cover outstanding expenditure from 2012, beginning of 2013 to cover the outstanding payment appropriations .

The European Parliament adopted by 514 votes to 68, with 20 abstentions, a resolution approving unamended the Council position on Draft amending budget (DAB) No 6/2012 of the European Union for the financial year 2012, Section III – Commission.

Parliament recalls that the draft amending budget No 6/2012 to the general budget 2012 covers, inter alia , an update in the forecast of revenue after the latest revision of the forecasts of own resources and other revenue and an increase of payment appropriations of nearly EUR 9 billion across headings 1a, 1b, 2, 3a and 4 of the multi-annual financial framework, with the aim of meeting outstanding needs to the end of the year.

Parliament also mentions other payment needs that have already been addressed in part through the global transfer in payment appropriations for a total amount of EUR 419.7 million, as well as sources of redeployment for a total of EUR 47.4 million, which were included in DAB 6/2012.

Parliament also highlights the fact that the variations observed in own resources, together with a significant increase in the revenue from fines and interest payment of EUR 3 525 million, lead to a total net increase in revenue of EUR 3 080.8 million, which will lessen the effect of DAB 6/2012 on Member States' GNI-based contributions.

Trilogue: both Parliament and Council delegations agreed, during the budgetary trilogue of 29 November 2012, t o pay only EUR 6.1 billion of the EUR 9 billion necessary to meet the 2012 payment needs .

To ensure that the remaining invoices for 2012 are paid as soon as possible, the three institutions undertook - and this is an integral part of the agreement – to adopt, at the beginning of 2013, a new amending budget the sole aim of which is to cover the EUR 2.9 billion outstanding. This amending budget should be understood as a political agreement and is aimed at providing additional appropriations as compared to the payment appropriations adopted in the 2013 initial budget, without prejudice to the proper implementation of the 2013 budget .

Parliament therefore approves, without amendment, the Council’s position on Draft Amending Budget No 6/2012.

The Committee on Budgets adopted the report by Francesca BALZANI (S&D, IT) on the Council position on Draft amending budget (DAB) No 6/2012 of the European Union for the financial year 2012, Section III – Commission.

Members recall that the draft amending budget No 6/2012 to the general budget 2012 covers, inter alia, an update in the forecast of revenue after the latest revision of the forecasts of own resources and other revenue and an increase of payment appropriations of nearly EUR 9 billion across headings 1a, 1b, 2, 3a and 4 of the multi-annual financial framework, with the aim of meeting outstanding needs to the end of the year.

Members also mention other payment needs that have already been addressed in part through the global transfer in payment appropriations for a total amount of EUR 419.7 million, as well as sources of redeployment for a total of EUR 47.4 million, which were included in DAB 6/2012.

They also highlight that the variations observed in own resources, together with a significant increase in the revenue from fines and interest payment of EUR 3 525 million, lead to a total net increase in revenue of EUR 3 080.8 million, which will lessen the effect of DAB 6/2012 on Member States' GNI-based contributions.

Trilogue: both Parliament and Council delegations agreed , during the budgetary trilogue of 29 November 2012, to pay only EUR 6.1 billion of the EUR 9 billion necessary to meet the 2012 payment needs . To ensure that the remaining payments due in 2012 are made as soon as possible, the three institutions undertook - and this is an integral part of the agreement – to adopt, at the beginning of 2013, a new amending budget the sole aim of which is to cover the 2012 expenditure still awaiting payment. This amending budget should be understood as a political agreement and is made in the form of a joint interinstitutional statement.

Members therefore call on Parliament to approve, without amendment, the Council position on Draft Amending Budget No 6/2012.

On 25 October 2012, the Commission forwarded to the Council draft amending budget (DAB) No 6 to the general budget for 2012. It concerned the following points:

as regards revenue , the revised forecast for own resources shows a net increase of +EUR 3.08 billion, resulting from an update in the forecast of revenue after the latest revision of the forecasts of own resources (+EUR 497.3 million in VAT- and GNI-based own resources, -EUR 950 million in traditional own resources) and other revenue (significant increase in the revenue from fines and interest payment of +EUR 3.53 billion); with regard to expenditure , the Commission proposes a net increase in the level of payment appropriations (p/a) by +EUR 9 billion across headings and sub-headings 1a, 1b, 2, 3a and 4, including a redeployment of EUR 47.4 million in p/a.

Moreover, the Commission proposes a net reduction in the level of commitment appropriations (c/a) of -EUR 133.4 million. As a result, the net effect for Member States' contributions to the EU budget would therefore amount to +EUR 5.9 billion.

Budget conciliation: at the trilogue on 29 November 2012, the European Parliament and the Council reached an ad referendum agreement on DAB No 6/2012 by reducing a certain number of budget lines involving a corresponding reduction in commitment appropriations of an amount of EUR 8.76 million, since these lines concerned non-differentiated expenditures. These lines relate, for the most part, to cohesion policy and structural funds.

Other changes were made resulting in the redeployments of certain lines.

As a result of these modifications, the net effect for Member States' contributions to the EU budget would amount to +EUR 2.9 billion .

As a result, on 6 December 2012, the Council adopted its position on draft amending budget No 6 of the European Union for the financial year 2012 on the basis of the elements described above, as set out in the technical annex to the explanatory memorandum of the Council’s position.

PURPOSE: the presentation of Draft Amending Budget No 6 to the General Budget 2012.

CONTENT: Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 6 for the year 2012 concerns the following:

the usual update in the forecast of revenue after the latest revision of the forecasts of own resources and other revenue; an increase of payment appropriations of nearly EUR 9.0 billion across headings 1a, 1b, 2, 3a and 4 of the multi-annual financial framework, with the aim of meeting outstanding needs to the end of the year, so that commitments can be honoured , financial penalties avoided, and beneficiaries can receive the funds envisaged by the agreed EU policies , for which the commitments were authorised in previous annual budgets. The Commission has identified some sources of redeployment for a total of EUR 47.4 million; a reduction in the level of commitment appropriations in the budget of EUR 133.4 million, to take account of the latest state of implementation and revised assessments of real needs to the year end.

The issue of payment appropriations: in September, all Commission services were asked to update their forecasts of needs until the end of 2012, and submit their requests to adjust payment appropriations. The revised elements form the basis of the so-called Global Transfer (DEC 30/2012), aimed at adjusting authorised payment appropriations across budget lines, according to the latest updated needs.

In preparing the Global Transfer for 2012, the Commission sought to match increased needs for payment appropriations on some budget lines, with amounts on other lines which would otherwise remain unused, with a view to achieving full implementation. The proposal concerns an amount of EUR 419.7 million, corresponding to some 0.3 % of the total authorised payments in the 2012 budget. In total, 110 budget lines are concerned (65 for reinforcement and 45 for reductions).

The corresponding value of the Global Transfer in 2011 was EUR 719.2 million, and in 2010 it was EUR 1 792 million. The relatively low amount this year reflects the very tight situation for payments in the 2012 budget, with only EUR 419.7 million available for redeployment, and so it has only been possible to meet part of the requests for reinforcement, within the limits of this amount. As already forecast and signalled during the course of the year, these are simply too great to be accommodated through redeployment within the appropriations available in the 2012 budget . Therefore recourse must be made to an amending budget.

The request should also be seen in the context of an adopted budget for 2012 which set the level of payment appropriations EUR 3.6 billion below the Commission's Draft Budget proposal , creating a very tight situation for payments from the beginning of the year.

The Commission is therefore obliged to have recourse to the joint statement agreed during the conciliation on the 2012 budget, and which was part of the joint conclusions of 19 November 2011. In this statement the Council and the European Parliament asked the Commission "to request additional payment appropriations in an amending budget if the appropriations entered in the 2012 budget are insufficient to cover expenditure". For their part, the Council and the European Parliament undertook to"take position on any draft amending budget as quickly as possible in order to avoid any shortfall in payment appropriations."

The total amount of payment appropriations requested is EUR 138 752.8 million , corresponding to 1.08 % of the European Union's GNI. This leaves a margin of EUR 3 451.4 million under the 2012 ceiling for payments of the multi-annual financial framework (MFF).

Budgetary variations: variations in own resources, together with a significant increase in the revenue from fines and interest payment of EUR 3 525 million, lead to a total net increase in revenue of EUR 3 080.8 million, which will lessen the effect of the DAB 6 on Member States' GNI-based contributions.