Documents

The Activity Statements constitute the main instrument for justifying the appropriations requested by the Commission in the Draft Budget.

These Statements provide details on the resources that are dedicated to the Activities, as well as on associated objectives, indicators, targets and outputs. They also include relevant evaluation results of EU interventions.

The document presents Activity Statements for each Policy Area according to the budget nomenclature. Each statement has the same structure and includes the following elements:

• numerical data related to the Activity;
• EU added value of the Activity; and performance
• information and proposed appropriations.

For budget 2011, additional expenditure, beyond the ceilings of heading 1a and 4 is required. It is therefore proposed to mobilise the Flexibility Instrument in accordance with point 27 of the Interinsitutional Agreement. The amounts to be mobilised are as follows:

• EUR 18 million for the Lifelong Learning programme under heading 1a;
• EUR 16 million for the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme under heading 1a;
• EUR 71 million for Palestine under heading 4.

The previous draft amending budget No. 3 to the budget 2011 (COM(2011) 219) has been adopted as amending budget No. 2 by the European Parliament on 5/07/2011 without any modification.

Amending Budget No. 2/2011 is intended to budget the surplus resulting from the implementation of the budget year 2010. As provided for in the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities , under Article 15 § 3, it is the only subject of this DAB and it has to be submitted within 15 days following the submission of the provisional accounts, which took place on 31 March 2011.

The implementation of the budget year 2010 shows a surplus of EUR 4 539 394 283 (not including contributions from European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and European Economic Area (EEA)), which is therefore entered as revenue in the 2011 budget.

The previous draft amending budget No. 2 to the budget 2011 (COM(2011) 154) has been adopted as amending budget no. 3 by the European Parliament on 14/07/2011.

Amending budget No. 3 for the year 2011 covers the mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund for an amount of EUR 19 546 647 in commitment and payment appropriations relating to the effects of heavy rainfall in Slovenia, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

Amending Budget (AB) No 4 for the year 2011 covers the following:

• A revision of the forecast of Traditional Own Resources (TOR, i.e. customs duties and sugar sector levies), VAT and GNI bases, the budgeting of the relevant UK corrections as well as their financing and revision of financing of GNI reductions in favour of the Netherlands and Sweden in 2011, resulting in a change in the distribution between Member States of their own resources contributions to the EU budget.
• A reinforcement of the Union's resources to manage migration and refugee flows, further to the recent developments in the Southern Mediterranean, in particular through additional appropriations for the Frontex agency, the External Borders Fund, the European Return Fund and the European Refugee Fund. The total net increase of appropriations requested for these purposes amounts to EUR 41,1 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 43,9 million in payment appropriations;
• A reduction of the level of payment appropriations for the Energy projects under the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP), amounting to EUR 43,9 million. This concerns in particular the Energy networks, and is due to a revision of the payment schedules for some beneficiaries of infrastructure projects.

The combined net financial impact of this amending budget is EUR 41,1 million in commitment appropriations and zero in payment appropriations.

Adopted by the Commission on 22 June 2011 (COM(2011) 374), amended by the Parliament on 25 October 2011 and approved by the Council on 28 October 2011.

Amending Budget (AB) No. 5 for the year 2011 covers the following:

• A modification to the establishment plan of the European External Action Service (EEAS), without additional budgetary request.

Adopted by the Commission on 18 October 2011 (COM(2011) 674), amended by the Council on 30 November 2011 and approved by the Parliament on 1 December 2011.

Amending Budget (AB) No 6 for the year 2011 covers the following:

• the usual update in the forecast of revenue after the revision of the forecasts of own resources and other revenue;
• the creation of a new budget line: 11 09 05 — Programme to support the further development of an Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP), with commitment appropriations of EUR 23,14 million. These commitment appropriations are reallocated from other lines withing Heading 2;
• the reallocation of EUR 113,4 million in commitment appropriations within Heading 4 EU as a Global Player. This amount is proposed as a front-loading of appropriations to cover expenditure in the year 2012;
• a reinforcement of budget article 04 02 20 European Social Fund - Operational technical assistance by EUR 3,25 million to provide specific expertise in support of the Administrative Reform Operational Programme in the field of tax administration in Greece. Payment appropriations of EUR 300 000 are also requested.
• an increase of payment appropriations of EUR 200 million to meet outstanding needs which remain after the "Global Transfer"
• a decrease of EUR 395 million in payment appropriations in 05 04 05 01 — Rural development programmes to take into account the difference between the payment forecasts from the Member States, as updated in September 2011, and the declaration of payments submitted in November 2011.

To summarise, the net effect of this AB No 6/2011 is an increase in commitment appropriations by EUR 3,25 million and an increase in payment appropriations by EUR 200 million in Headings 1a and 1b.

Amending Budget (AB) No 7 for the year 2011 covers the mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund for an amount of EUR 37 979 875 in commitment and payment appropriations relating to the earthquake in Murcia, Spain (EUR 21 070 950) and flooding in the Veneto, Italy (EUR 16 908 925).

The Commission publishes a budgetary implementation report every month, which is transmitted to the budgetary authority (Council of the European Union and European Parliament) and to the Court of Auditors. This report describes the evolution of budgetary credits. It includes information amassed at the level of Financial Perspectives, summarizing the data concerning commitment appropriations and payment appropriations.

Budgetary implementation also forms part of the annual financial statement that the Commission must present for control to the Parliament and the Court of Auditors.