The European Parliament adopted by 623 votes to 27, with 38 abstentions, a resolution on the Council position on Draft amending budget No 6/2021 of the European Union for the financial year 2021 - Additional vaccines doses to low and lower-middle income countries, UCPM reinforcement and other adjustments to expenditure and revenue.

Parliament approved the Council's position on draft amending budget No 6/2021. It welcomed the proposal to ensure that the supplementary 200 million Covid-19 vaccine doses pledged by the President of the Commission in her State of the Union speech are funded and delivered as a matter of urgency to low and lower-middle income countries.

Parliament strongly advocated for the acceleration of the global vaccination campaign , notably during its reading on the EU budget for the 2022.

As a reminder, Draft amending budget No 6/2021 covers in particular the following elements:

- reinforcement of the Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe for an amount of EUR 450 million in commitment and in payment appropriations in the context of the COVID-19 global health response to donate 200 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to low and lower-middle income countries by the middle of next year;

- reinforcement of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM/rescEU) for an amount of EUR 57.8 million in commitment appropriations to provide additional funding to cover new emergencies including repatriation flights from Afghanistan, the response in Haiti following the recent earthquake and outstanding operations including forest fires whose costs exceed the existing availabilities until the end of the year;

- increase of the level of commitment appropriations on the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPA) budget line for an amount of EUR 3.5 million considering the updated budget needs following the conclusion of the negotiations on the new protocols with Cook Islands and Mauritania;

- adjustment of the budgetary nomenclature following specific Member States requests to transfer resources pursuant to Article 26 of the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR);

- update of the revenue side of the budget to take account of the revised estimates of own resource based on non-recycled plastic packaging waste .

PURPOSE: presentation by the European Commission of Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 6 for the year 2021.

CONTENT: Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 6 for the year 2021 is intended to provide additional appropriations to accelerate global vaccinations and to cover activations under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and expenditure arising from external fisheries agreements, as well as some adjustments to expenditure and revenue.

Overall, the net impact of this DAB on expenditure corresponds to an increase of EUR 473.5 million in commitment appropriations. No additional payment appropriations are requested.

In particular, DAB 6 covers the following aspects:

(1) Global COVID-19 vaccines

Given that less than 1% of global doses of vaccine for COVID-19 have been administered in low and lower-middle income countries, there is a clear and pressing need to speed up global vaccinations. The EU has already committed to share 250 million doses. In order to provide an additional 200 million doses to low and lower-middle income countries, EUR 1.3 billion will need to be mobilised.

This Commission proposes to reinforce the Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe for an amount of EUR 450 million in commitment and in payment appropriations in the context of the COVID-19 global health response to donate 200 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to low and lower-middle income countries by the middle of next year;

(2) Strengthening the Union's Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM/rescEU)

Following another semester of exceptional number of requests for assistance under the UCPM due to Covid-19, the UCPM/rescEU has been activated over the summer for evacuations from Afghanistan, operations in Haiti following the recent earthquake and fighting forest fires and consequences of floods in Europe. Additionally, activations are expected before the end of the year following the tropical cyclones season in the Latin-American region and in the Pacific.

Overall, ensuring an appropriate response under the UCPM will require additional commitment appropriations estimated at EUR 57.8 million . The current level of available payment appropriations is sufficient to fulfil payment obligations until the end of the year.

Given that two sources of redeployment have been identified in the current budget, it is proposed to finance EUR 37.8 million of the additional need by a redeployment of respectively EUR 20 million in commitment appropriations from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and EUR 17.8 million in commitment appropriations from the Union contribution to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

(3) Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs)

The Commission examined the overall budgetary needs for 2021, taking into account the following elements (i) the completion of the negotiation of Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs) with the Cook Islands and Mauritania; (ii) the corresponding agreements and protocols are expected to enter into force provisionally in mid-November 2021; (iii) the delay in the signature of some protocols (Kiribati, Madagascar, Liberia, all postponed to 2022-2023); and (iv) the savings made on the agreements with Greenland and Gabon which were signed for a lower annual fee than initially forecast.

Considering the updated budgetary needs, the Commission proposes to increase the level of commitment appropriations on the budget line for Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs) by an amount of EUR 3.5 million , which is proposed to be taken from the margin of heading 3 (natural resources and environment) of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027.

(4) Application of Articles 14 and 26 of the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) for seven Funds under shared management and impact on the nomenclature structure

The programming exercise is ongoing and several Member States have already requested or indicated their intention to use the provisions of Articles 14 and 26 and make such transfers of resources to other instruments under direct or indirect management or to Funds under shared management.

In order to implement these requests and respect the MFF ceilings and in line with the approach taken for the transfers from ERDF and ESF+ to the Just Transition Fund (JTF) and from the Cohesion Fund (CF) to the Connecting Europe Facility, the Commission proposes creating 18 new budget lines within the relevant programmes (without appropriations).

(5) Updating the revenue side of the budget

The Own Resources (OR) Decision 2020 was ratified by all Member States by 31 May 2021 and entered into force on 1 June 2021. This decision introduced a new own resource, based on non-recycled plastic packaging waste.

The forecast for all Member States was agreed at the 181st meeting of the Advisory Committee on Own Resources (ACOR) on 26 May 2021 and was included in the DAB 4.

The Commission agreed with all Member States at the September ACOR on an updated set of forecasts for 2021 and 2022 for the own resource based on non-recycled plastic packaging only.

Compared to the results of the May ACOR, the updated forecasts result in changes for several Member States. They lead to an overall increase of EUR 20 million in the clean resource based on non-recycled plastic packaging waste . GNI resources will be adjusted downwards by a corresponding amount.