Details
- Part of collection
- Publication date
- 4 December 2015
Description
- Commission's proposal: Draft Amending Budget 7/2015, COM(2015) 485 – 30 September 2015
- Council's position: 9 October 2015
- Parliament's position: 14 October 2015
Amending Budget (AB) No 7 for the year 2015
On 23 September 2015, the Commission presented a Communication to the European Parliament, the European Council and the Council – Managing the refugee crisis: immediate operational, budgetary and legal measures under the European Agenda on Migration. This Communication identifies a set of priority actions to be taken within the next six months, including the adaptations which need to be made to the budget for 2015, and the draft budget proposal for 2016.
The purpose of Amending Budget (AB) No 7 for the year 2015, is to introduce the necessary changes for immediate measures in the remaining months of 2015, making use of any possibilities for redeployment of appropriations at this stage of the year, without undermining the implementation of other spending programmes. It includes the following:
- A reinforcement of emergency assistance provided under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF), for a total amount of EUR 100 million in commitment appropriations;
- An increase in the number of establishment plan posts for FRONTEX (+ 60 posts), EASO (+ 30) and EUROPOL (+ 30) to increase their capacity on the ground. The related reinforcement of salary expenditure amounts to EUR 1,3 million in commitment and payment appropriations for the three agencies combined;
- Additional funding for the European Neighbourhood Instrument (EUR 300 million in commitment appropriations), so that the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis ("Madad Fund") can reach at least EUR 500 million.
- An increase in payment appropriations for Humanitarian Aid of EUR 55,7 million through redeployment. A request for the transfer of commitment appropriations for Humanitarian Aid from the Emergency Aid Reserve (EAR) will be made separately, in order to reach EUR 200 million of humanitarian aid for refugees in need.
Reinforcements requested for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), the Internal Security Fund (ISF), and Humanitarian Aid in this DAB 7/2015 are partly offset by redeployment of EUR 70,5 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 57,0 milion in payment appropriations currently available in the 2015 budget: notably from the EU Solidarity Fund (EUR 33,7 million in commitment and payment appropriations); from various budget lines in heading 2 (EUR 24,8 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 19,8 million in payment appropriations); and EUR 12,0 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 3,5 million in payment appropriations from the Food and Feed programme.
In addition to redeployment, the reinforcement in commitment appropriations is to be achieved by using the existing margins under the expenditure ceilings of heading 3 (Security and Citizenship, for the full available amount of EUR 23,2 million) and heading 4 (Global Europe, for an amount of EUR 300 million), as well as by mobilising the Flexibility Instrument for an amount of EUR 66,1 million to finance emergency measures under AMIF in heading 3. A proposal to mobilise the Flexibility Instrument is presented in parallel with this DAB.
Overall, the additional measures proposed in this draft amending budget lead to a net increase in the level of commitment appropriations in the 2015 budget of EUR 330,7 million. The level of payment appropriations remains unchanged in 2015, as a large part of the payments will be made in 2016.
Additional needs mentioned in the Communication on Managing the refugee crisis, as compared to the Commission's draft budget (DB) proposal for 2016, will be included in an amending letter to the 2016 draft budget, to be presented in mid-October. This amending letter will also include updated estimates for agricultural expenditure.