Mobilisation of the contingency margin 2020

Commission's proposal: COM(2020) 172 – 2 April 2020

Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin in 2020 to provide emergency assistance to Member Statems and further reinforce the Union Civil Protection Mecahnism-RescEU in response to the COVID-19 outbreak

The Commission submits today Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 2/2020[1]. It includes an overall increase of commitment appropriations for heading 3 Security and Citizenship of EUR 3 000,0 million to cover the re-activation of the Emergency Support Instrument (ESI) within the Union to help Member States tackle the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak and to further reinforce the Union Civil Protection Mechanism/rescEU so as to facilitate wider stock-piling and coordination of essential resource distribution across Europe. This increase complements other reinforcements that concerned the same heading for an overall amount of EUR 423,3 million already proposed by the Commission in DAB No 1/2020[2].

Given the absence of room for redeployments under heading 3 and in line with the proposal, also submitted today, to amend the MFF Regulation removing the limitations in the scope of this instrument[3], the Commission proposes in DAB No 2/2020 the use of the Global Margin for Commitments for the full amount available under this special instrument of EUR 2 042,4 million[4].

In addition DAB No 2/2020 is accompanied by a proposal[5] to amend Decision (EU) 2020/265 on the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument in 2020[6]. This proposal, which increases the amount proposed to be mobilised by EUR 316,3 million, results in a total mobilisation of EUR 1 094,4 million in 2020 and exhausts the amount available under this special instrument.

Finally, the Commission proposes, as a last resort, to mobilise the Contingency Margin for 2020 for an amount of EUR 714,6 million to ensure the full financing of commitment appropriations related to expenditure under heading 3 in the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2020, over and above the commitment ceiling.

[1] COM(2020) 170, 2.4.2020.

[2] COM(2020) 145, 27.3.2020.

[3] COM(2020) 174, 2.4.2020.

[4] This amount takes into the remaining margin from 2019 (EUR 1 316,9 million) made available for 2020 in the “Technical adjustment in respect of special instrument” adopted today by the Commission (COM(2020) 173, 2.4.2020).

[5] A first proposal to amend this decision accompanied DAB No 1/2020 but is replaced by this second one.

[6] COM(2020) 171, 2.4.2020.

See also Amending budget No 2/2020

Commission's proposal: COM(2020) 422 – 3 June 2020

Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin in 2020 to continue humanitarian support to refugees in Türkiye

Council Regulation (EU, EURATOM) No 1311/2013 of 2 December 2013 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020[1] (‘MFF Regulation’) allows for the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin of up to 0,03 % of Gross National Income for the EU-28 to react to unforeseen circumstances as a last resort instrument. In the technical adjustment of the MFF for 2020[2], based on Article 6 of the MFF Regulation, the absolute amount of the Contingency Margin for the year 2020 is set at EUR 5 096,8 million.

The Commission submits today Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 5/2020[3] to continue providing support to refugees and host communities in response to the Syria crisis in Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiye. Under heading 4 (Global Europe), the Commission proposes in this DAB to allocate, in commitment appropriations, EUR 100 million as resilience support to refugees and host communities in Jordan and Lebanon and EUR 485 million to ensure the continuation of the urgent humanitarian support to refugees in Türkiye.

After having carried out a detailed analysis of the possibility to reallocate significant amounts within heading 4 (Global Europe), the Commission concluded that there is no room for redeployments in 2020. The unallocated margin still available under this heading (EUR 103,4 million) just allows the financing of EUR 100 million in commitment appropriations to support for resilience to host communities in Jordan and Lebanon. The remaining portion of this margin (EUR 3,4 million) is however largely insufficient to cover the urgent humanitarian support to refugees in Türkiye.

Because of the full exhaustion of the envelopes of the other two special instruments of the MFF Regulation (Global Margin for Commitments and Flexiblity Instrument), the Commission proposes, as a last resort, to mobilise the Contingency Margin for 2020 for an amount of EUR 481,6 million to ensure the full financing of commitment appropriations related to expenditure under heading 4 in the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2020, over and above the commitment ceiling.

[1] OJ L347, 20.12.2013, p.884.

[2] COM(2020) 173, 2.4.2020.

[3] COM(2020) 421, 3.6.2020.

See also Draft amending budget No 5/2020