The EU amending budget was presented today by the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. This draft, if ratified, would allow the Commission to reimburse beneficiaries of EU funded programmes completed in 2012 (Member States, towns, universities, scientist, NGOs) and financed the Cohesion Policy due this current year.
The budget of 2013 was 5 billion euro less than what was required by the Commission and thus it creates financial tension and a lack of financial resources.
An extra EURO 11.2 billion is required for the EU budget to reimburse beneficiaries of EU funded programmes completed across Europe in 2012 as well as to honour the Cohesion Policy claims that will fall due in 2013.
The bulk of the draft amending budget presented by the European Commission today will allow all the legal obligations left pending at the end of 2012, as well as those arising before the end of 2013, to be covered in this year’s budget. It covers claims from beneficiaries of EU funds (Member States, regions and towns, universities and scientists, NGOs…) for projects completed across Europe; it also includes Member States’ estimates for payments they will expect from the EU this year.
While proposing EUR 9 billion of additional payments towards cohesion, the draft amending budget remains behind the 2012 budget and cuts will be severe in particular in the research fields were an extra 643.7 million (including 126 million for LLP and Erasmus).
If not, universities and higher education schools would probably have to cut number of places they make available or reduce the level of scholarships, which ultimately means that students students from more disadvantaged backgrounds will not able to take part in the scheme
Draft Amending Budget 2 (DAB 2) per heading,
