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.

Working Document II presents information on human resources, both for the establishment plans and for external personnel and across all headings of the multiannual financial framework.

Working Document III presents detailed information relating to all decentralised agencies, executive agencies, joint undertakings and EIT, with a transparent presentation with regard to revenue, expenditure and staff levels of various Union bodies which actually receive a contribution charged to the EU budget.

Working Document IV presents information on all pilot projects and preparatory actions which have budget appropriations (commitments and/or payments) in the 2013 Draft Budget.

Working Document V presents the budget implementation forecast for 2012, information on assigned revenue implementation in 2011, and a progress report on outstanding commitments (RAL) and managing potentially abnormal RAL (PAR) for 2011.

This document encompasses administrative expenditure under all budgets to be implemented by the Commission in accordance with Article 317 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, as well as the budgets of the Offices (OP, OLAF, EPSO, OIB, OIL and PMO).

Working Document VII presents information on human resources and expenditure related to the external actions of the European Union.

The Amending Letter No 1 (AL 1) to the Draft Budget for 2013 (DB 2013) covers the following:

• the line by line updating of the estimated needs for agricultural expenditure. In addition to changing market factors, the AL also incorporates the impact of legislative decisions adopted in the agricultural sector since the DB 2013 was drawn up, revised estimates of needs for some direct payments, as well as any proposals, which are expected to have a significant effect during the coming budget year.
• an update of the situation for International Fisheries Agreements.

Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 1 for the year 2013 concerns the incorporation into the 2013 Budget of both the commitment and payment appropriations necessary to cover expenditure related to the accession of the Republic of Croatia (hereafter Croatia) to the European Union on 1 July 2013, in full respect of the Treaty concerning the accession of the Republic of Croatia.

The increases proposed in DAB No 1 are EUR 655,1 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 374,0 million in payment appropriations. This reflects the financial package agreed at the Accession Conference of 30 June 2011, but excludes heading 5, in line with the Commission's restricted approach on administrative expenditure, and since the needs related to accession are already included in the 2013 budget.

Draft amending budget (DAB) No 2 for the year 2013 covers the following:

• an increase in the forecast of other revenue stemming from fines and penalties, amounting to EUR 290 million;
• an increase of payment appropriations of EUR 11,2 billion across headings 1a, 1b, 2, 3a, 3b and 4 of the multi-annual financial framework (MFF). This is with the aim of meeting outstanding needs to the end of the year, so that obligations stemming from past and current commitments can be honoured, financial penalties avoided, and beneficiaries can receive the funds envisaged by the agreed EU policies, for which Parliament and Council authorised the related commitment appropriations in previous annual budgets. The requested additional payment appropriations will reduce the level of outstanding commitments (‘reste à liquider’, RAL) as well as the risk of rolling over onto 2014 abnormal levels of unpaid bills.

The present Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 3/2013 is intended to budget the surplus resulting from the implementation of the budget year 2012. As provided for in the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the Union , under Article 18 § 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 at end March 2013.

The implementation of the budget year 2012 shows a surplus of EUR 1 023 276 525,93 (not including contributions from European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and European Economic Area (EEA)), which is therefore entered as revenue in the 2013 budget and will diminish accordingly the global contribution of the Member States to the financing of the EU Budget.

The breakdown of this surplus is the following: EUR 719 million for the revenue side, EUR 244 million for the expenditure side and EUR 60 million for the exchange rate difference.

Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 4 for the year 2013 covers the following:

• the modification of the establishment plan of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), reflecting a request for 20 additional establishment plan posts (all AD posts). The corresponding increase in the EU contribution to the GSA amounts to EUR 1 750 000, and is proposed to be financed by internal redeployment of resources within the existing budgetary envelope of the GNSS programme;
• the modification of the establishment plan of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), reflecting a request for 2 additional establishment plan posts (both AD posts), offset by 2 freed posts in the Commission’s establishment plan. This is part of an extension of the mandate of the agency, which also entails a transfer of contract agents (13 FTE) from the Commission to the EACEA. This translates into an overall increase in the EU contribution to the running costs of the agency, amounting to EUR 1 516 000, which is proposed to be financed by a corresponding reduction of appropriations for staff and administrative support expenditure in the Commission;
• the modification of the establishment plan of the Court of Justice of the European Union, reflecting the creation of an additional Advocate General and a corresponding request for 7 additional establishment plan posts (4 AD and 3 AST posts). This is proposed to be financed by the available appropriations within the Court’s section of the budget.

Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 5 for the year 2013 covers the mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund for an amount of EUR 14 607 942 in commitment and payment appropriations relating to a flooding disaster in Slovenia, Croatia and Austria in autumn 2012.

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.