20 EU General Budget for 2013
| (a)
(35232)
12769/13
COM(13) 557
(b)
(35259)
12770/13
COM(13) 559
|
Draft Amending Budget No. 7 to the General Budget 2013: General statement of revenue: Statement of expenditure by section: Section III: Commission
Draft Decision on mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument
|
| Legal base | Article 314 TFEU and Article 106a EURATOM; co-decision; QMV
|
| Documents originated | 25 July 2013
|
| Deposited in Parliament | (a) 29 July 2013
(b) 23 August 2013
|
| Department | HM Treasury
|
| Basis of consideration | EM of 26 August 2013
|
| Previous Committee Report | None
|
| Discussion in Council | Not known
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information requested
|
Background
20.1 During the course of a financial year the Commission presents
to the Council and European Parliament Draft Amending Budgets
(DABs) proposing increases or reductions for revenue and expenditure
in the current EU General Budget — there are about 10 DABs
each year.
20.2 The Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006
on EU budgetary and financial management allows mobilisation of
a Flexibility Instrument to allow the financing of clearly identified
expenditure which could not be financed within the limits of the
ceilings available for one or more Headings of the Multiannual
Financial Framework (MFF).
20.3 The European Social Fund (ESF), one of the
Structural Funds, is the EU instrument for supporting jobs, helping
people get better jobs and ensuring fairer job opportunities for
all EU citizens. The ESF finances programmes intended to improve
job prospects of millions of Europeans, in particular those who
find it difficult to secure employment. Amongst the Conclusions
of the June European Council was that, in seeking to improve youth
employment, use should be made of the Structural Funds, with particular
focus on the ESF.[73]
The documents
20.4 DAB No. 7/2013, document (a), concerns an increase
of €150 million (£131 million) in commitment appropriations
in Heading 1b of the current MFF. The intention is to increase
the ESF in order to allow further commitment allocations in 2013
for France, Italy and Spain "as a contribution to the special
effort needed to address the specific situations of unemployment,
in particular youth unemployment, and of poverty and social exclusion
in these Member States".
20.5 In presenting the proposal the Commission says
that:
- it has "the aim of addressing
certain issues resulting from the final outcome of the negotiations
of the MFF for the years 2014-2020, affecting France, Italy and
Spain";
- the June European Council "considered that
a budgetary solution should be given to that matter"; and
- the Commission thinks that the most appropriate
way to assist the three Member States is by increasing the ESF.
20.6 The Commission proposes that the increase in
commitment appropriations would be covered by the margin under
the ceiling of Heading 1b, that is €16 million (£14
million), and by mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument for
€134 million (£117 million), as proposed with the draft
Decision, document (b).
The Government's view
20.7 The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Greg
Clark) says that:
- the Government supports the
content of this proposal, as part of a wider commitment to tackle
youth unemployment;
- this is a subject which, as
the Prime Minister said in his post-June European Council statement,
should be of greatest priority for the EU right now;
- this was a part of the June European Council
deal, which was agreed unanimously;
- the Government supports the focus of the proposal
on the regions of the EU where this funding is most needed; and
- France, Spain and Italy have the highest youth
unemployment rates of all Member States and the extra commitments
can be used to complement their Youth Employment Initiative funds.
20.8 Turning to the financial implications of the
proposal the Minister tells us that:
- in accordance with the payment
rules of the Structural Funds, all payment applications for a
programme are assigned to the earliest open commitments and there
is thus no need for additional payments in 2013 for these additional
commitments, which would pay out in future years;
- thus payment appropriations in 2013 will stay
unchanged;
- the commitments increase will still leave a margin
of €1.8 billion (£1.6 billion) in overall 2013 commitment
appropriations;
- since the commitments will turn into payments
gradually, the payments flowing out of these commitments will
likely be spread over a long period;
- the UK's contributions to the payments flowing
out of these commitments would be determined by its financing
share in those years;
- the proposal does not provide information on
the annual payment profile of the proposed additional commitments,
therefore the Government is not yet able to calculate the exact
cost to the UK;
- the UK's post-abatement financing share is currently
estimated to be around 12.5% in 2013; and
- based on that financing share assumption, this
DAB would cost the UK less than €19 million (£16.60
million), spread over a number of years, if all the commitments
were fully implemented.
Conclusion
20.9 Whilst we recognise the impetus the European
Council intends for tackling youth unemployment, before considering
this proposal further we should like information on two points.
First, what are the "certain issues resulting from the final
outcome of the negotiations of the MFF for the years 2014-2020,
affecting France, Italy and Spain" the Commission mentions?
Secondly, is there scope for transferring commitment appropriations
from elsewhere in the 2013 Budget, rather than having recourse
to the Flexibility Instrument?
20.10 Pending receipt of this information the
documents remain under scrutiny.
73 See http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/137634.pdf. Back
|
