Draft amending budget No 3/2026

Commission's proposal: Draft Amending Budget 3/2026, COM(2026) 950 – 9 October 2026
Council's position: 
Parliament's position: 

The purpose of Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 3 for the year 2026 is to update both the expenditure and revenue side of the budget.

The proposed changes on the expenditure side of the budget concern the following elements:

1. An increase in the level of payment appropriations for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for an amount of  EUR 2 billion, for the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) for an amount of EUR 2 billion and for the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for an amount of EUR 206 million. These amounts could not be included in the redeployments proposed in the ‘Global transfer’ (DEC 18/2026), which was submitted to Parliament and Council on 2 October 2026;
2. A reintroduction in the budget of 55% of the budgetary commitments under three Hungarian operational programmes in Cohesion Policy suspended under a measure established by Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506 of 15 December 2022 on measures for the protection of the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary, subject to the Council lifting that measure as proposed by the Commission on 23 September;
3. An update of the needs for the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs), taking into account the latest developments;
4. An increase in both commitment and payment appropriations for the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) to ensure the timely reimbursement of EAGF expenditure to Member States;
5. An increase in commitment appropriations emergency measures under the Food Chain strand of the Single Market Programme (SMP), in order to co-finance measures implemented by Member States following a series of outbreaks of animal diseases including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and African Swine Fever;
6. A return from the reserve to the operational line of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) due to the delayed adoption of the Regulation on the return of third-country nationals;
7. An adjustment of the EU contribution to several decentralised agencies, linked to implementation or other specific reasons, as follows:

• A return in commitment and payment appropriations to the LIFE programme from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA);
• A return in commitment and payment appropriations to the EU4Health programme from the European Medicines Agency (EMA);
• A return in commitment and payment appropriations to the Customs programme from the European Union Customs Authority (EUCA);
• An increase in commitment and payment appropriations for the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and an adjustment of its establishment plan following the adoption of the Regulation on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway area.

Overall, the net impact of this DAB on expenditure amounts to an increase of EUR 2 179,7 million in commitment appropriations and an increase of EUR 4 162,4 million in payment appropriations. 

On the revenue side, this DAB incorporates an additional EUR 4 765,4 million (for a total of EUR 6 065,4 million) of definitive fines and penalty payments paid until 30 September 2026 and EUR 1 100 million of estimated TOR surplus. 

As a result, the overall impact on the revenue side is an decrease in the GNI contributions of EUR 1 703 million.