Mobilisation of the flexibility instrument 2016

Commission's proposal: COM (2015) 514 – 14 October 2015 
Council's position: 24 November 2015
Parliament's position: 25 November 2015

Article 11 of Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 allows for the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument within the annual ceiling of EUR 471 million (2011 prices) to allow the financing of clearly identified expenditure which could not be financed within the limits of the ceilings available for one or more other headings.

Due to the urgent needs, it is necessary to mobilise an important additional amount to finance measures to alleviate the migration and refugee crisis. After having examined all possibilities for re-allocating appropriations under the expenditure ceilings for heading 3 (Security and Citizenship) and heading 4 (Global Europe), it appears necessary to mobilise the Flexibility Instrument to complement the financing in the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016, beyond the ceilings of heading 3 by EUR 1 506 million and heading 4 by EUR 24 million to finance measures in the field of migration and refugees. The unused annual amounts available for the Flexibility Instruments of the financial years 2014 and 2015 should be used for this mobilisation.

On the basis of the expected payment profile, the payment appropriations corresponding to the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument should be distributed over several financial years and are estimated to EUR 734,2 million in 2016, EUR 654,2 million in 2017, EUR 83,0 million in 2018, and EUR 58,6 million in 2019.