PURPOSE: presentation of a Draft Amending Budget (DAB)
No. 6 to the 2017 budget aimed at reducing payment and commitment
appropriations in line with updated forecasts of expenditure and
update of revenue (own resources and fines).
CONTENT: the present Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No.
6/2017 aims to update both the expenditure and the revenue sides of
the budget to reflect latest developments.
1) Expenditure side: the
Commission proposes to adjust the level of payment appropriations
for certain budget lines in order to align them more closely to the
latest estimates of needs and working on the assumption that the
rebalancing of payment appropriations between budget lines
requested separately by the Commission in the so-called "global
transfer" (DEC 20/2017) will be accepted by the European Parliament
and the Council.
The overall reduction
(EUR 7 719.7 million) in the level of payment appropriations requested in
this DAB mainly concerns:
- Heading 1b - Economic, social and territorial
cohesion: the Commission proposes a
decrease of EUR 5.9 billion in payment
appropriations for the European Structural and Investment
funds (ESIF). All operational programmes for this period were
adopted before the end of 2015. However, the overall level of
interim payments in 2017 for these programmes will be lower than
initially budgeted. Implementation delays continue to be observed
in relation to the 2014-2020 operational programmes. The Commission
has expressed its readiness to provide assistance to Member States
to ensure that implementation accelerates.
- Heading 2 - Sustainable Growth: Natural
Resources:
i.
European Agricultural Fund for Rural
Development (EAFRD):
it is proposed: (i) to release an amount of EUR 780 million
since for most of the programmes, closure and payments took place
at the end of 2016 and that the needs for closure payments in 2017
are lower; (ii) to reduce by EUR 1.5 million the commitment
appropriations for budget item 05 04 60 02 (Operational technical
assistance);
ii.
Compulsory contributions to regional
fisheries management organisations and other international
organisations and sustainable fisheries agreements: amounts of EUR 11.2 million in commitment
appropriations and EUR 10.4 million in payment
appropriations may be released from the reserve line;
iii.
European Agricultural Guarantee Fund
(EAGF): following the cancellation of
certain actions, it is proposed to decrease the level of
appropriations by EUR 1.9 million in both commitment and
payment appropriations;
iv.
Decentralised bodies
(ECHA-biocides): since the fee income
from industry received by the Agency is expected to be EUR 0.6
million higher than initially estimated, the contribution from
the EU budget may be reduced accordingly.
- Heading 3 - Security and Citizenship:
i.
the proposed EUR 157.5 million reduction
in payment appropriations takes into account the fact that the
implementation of the two relocation schemes under the Asylum,
Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF)
has been slower than expected;
ii.
the proposed reduction of payment appropriations
of EUR 130 million for the Internal Security Fund (ISF)
is due to the delay in the implementation of national programmes,
as well as the late adoption of the new Entry-Exist
System.
- Heading 4 - Global Europe: it is proposed:
i.
to reduce by a total amount of EUR 268.1
million the payment appropriations identified on several lines
of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA
II);
ii.
to reduce by EUR 434.1 million the
payment appropriations identified on several lines of the European
Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI);
iii.
to release EUR 46 million, both in
commitment and payment appropriations, relating to pre-financing
under the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF),
which will no longer be necessary in 2017.
2) Revenue side: the
Commission proposes:
i.
to revise the forecast of Traditional Own
Resources (i.e. customs duties and sugar sector levies),
value-added tax (VAT) and gross national income (GNI)
bases, and to budget the relevant UK corrections and their
financing, which all affect the distribution of own resources
contributions from Member States to the EU budget;
ii.
to enter into the EU budget the fines
decided by the Commission, for which all legal remedies were
exhausted and which therefore became definitive in the course of
2017, reducing accordingly the own resources contributions from
Member States to the EU budget.