- “Okay. It's good to have some some movement as well. Is it better now? Everyone can hear me. Very good. So as I said, thank you very much. I will just provide a few opening words on what we are already doing in the budget. Just a short overview. Uh, before then, we, uh, we passed the floor to our experts on on the specific, specific elements. So, indeed, thanks for the opportunity to to open this discussion. As you already said, Mr. Chairman, extreme weather events and natural disasters such as floods, wildfires and droughts are becoming more frequent, more severe and more costly. Climate change has increasingly intensified such events posing a serious threat to our regions and citizens. Under the current MFF, the EU has at its disposal a range of instruments to both finance the prevention and mitigation measures, as well as respond effectively when the disasters occur. I would like to briefly talk you through the two different instruments. So the, the, uh, preparedness and adaptation, and then to also cover the instruments that we, that we can use as a response to, to these disasters. So as regards the support of prevention and enhance the preparedness in the events of national disaster. First we have the cohesion policy. And that's already from the beginning of this period. We provided in the regulation basically a new under the current EF, the new objective promoting climate change adaptation, risk prevention and disaster disaster resilience.”
Cohesion and rural funding · EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “That is, the bulk of of the investment under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. About 2.8 billion will be used during the period, mainly 21 and 2024. Out of it, 2 billion was allocated under the NGO Top Up to especially help with stockpiling as regards the preparedness for the health emergencies. And now let me attend to the reaction. Uh. As the, uh, as you have seen recently. And maybe I will give one one. Uh, example of one region that was recently a strike by, uh, by a natural disaster. The commissioner can come immediately with the react. You, the part of the Union civil Protection mechanism to provide immediate assistance. We then also have, uh, two special instruments. And you see me here quite often asking you to agree with the mobilization of the either emergency aid reserve of the Solidarity Fund as a reaction to either natural disasters in the member states or natural disasters or humanitarian needs in the third countries. So as regards the Solidarity Fund, as you know, it is it is meant to provide financial assistance to the post-disaster recovery efforts. It focuses on assisting the affected population and facilitating the reconstruction of damaged areas, with a maximum annual allocation of about 1,000,000,000 in 2018 prices, so it goes about 1.2 billion next year.”
Size of EU budget · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “I'm almost there. So, as you know, last year we proposed this restore regulation that allows the member states to reprogram their cohesion funds to help help their regions and also their people. Where we change the ESF regulation for for immediate assistance, uh, for short term, uh uh uh, financing for when they can't cut work after the disaster. Similar for the agriculture, uh, for the European Rural Development Agriculture Fund for Rural Development. Uh, also to be allowed to use for uh, to be used in, uh, in, uh, helping the areas hit by the natural disasters both for the restore and the rural development. The member states still have time, I think, especially for the restore. There are six months after the regulation was adopted. So it's actually this week on the 25th of June. When is the deadline when the member states should ask for the reprogramming and reuse their cohesion funds for, uh, for recovery after the, uh, after the floods? I think this also not to forget we have the European Agricultural Agricultural Reserve under the EGF, under the agricultural policy that provides about up to 450 million for new measures every year, and some of them have been in the past used also to help member States when when they were hit by natural disaster.”
Cohesion and rural funding · Agricultural funding · EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “Specifically, the Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Sub Programme of the Life programme has financed 108 project projects, providing a total contribution of 308 million. Furthermore, it is also relevant to mention that project aimed at climate change adaptation, investments to the sustainable use and protection of water and marine, and the protection of restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem. Receive financing under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, where more than 37%. Of the amounts allocated are to be used for the for the climate related and green objectives. It's also within the Horizon Europe programme. There is an EU mission on Adaptation to climate change, which helps regions and cities to deliver tangible solutions and concrete impacts by 2030, with a programme allocation of 886 million over the current MFF period. Under this mission, 326 regions, cities and local authorities are implementing this mission. Out of those, 263 already received support for a specific project. Research projects in this climate. Climate adaptation. Then another one of our most important instruments instrument as regards the the preparedness and also reaction is the. Union Civil Protection mechanism, which in its three windows uh also covers the prevention and preparedness and then the response. So as regards the prevention and preparedness activities about 61 million are allocated to these measures. They are included. They are basically grants to member states and participating states for disaster risk management, as well as technical assistance facility management by the world Bank for the preparedness activities.”
EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “We also propose a significantly reinforced flexibility instrument that would be essential to increase the ability of the EU budget to respond to crisis and new priorities. It would allow to reuse resources, decommitments, fines, free flows, and it will be for the budget authority to use them or not. This was always also the call of the European Parliament. We also proposed an adjustable deflator that would ensure predictable and realistic financial capacity for our farmers and other beneficiaries. It is also very important that the budget will finance common priorities and European public goods with EU value added, and it will allow for the repayment of the NGO borrowing. Obviously, the institutional balance is of essence and the Commission has put forward proposals to give a stronger role to the European Parliament and the Council in the definition of the policy priorities and their financing. We have proposed a steering mechanism which would allow the two institutions to discuss policy priorities, and which would allow inform the preparation of the annual budget. This will then, as a consequence, allow for a stronger role of the budgetary authorities of both the European Parliament and the Council in deciding on the flexibility in the next MFF and at the same time, a closer alignment of the EU budget with political priorities. In this sense, it is the budgetary authority.”
Own EU resources · Size of EU budget · Conditions to access EU budget
- “So on the rural development as explained in the previous. Amending budget. Uh, it is, I think, across the board, uh, there is a fast implementation of the old program and getting to closure, but also finally picking up on the on the new programs. Might also remember, in the last 2 or 3 years we actually cut quite significant amounts. So finally, all member states are catching up. And now we actually didn't need only 3.5 billion, but almost 4 billion to cover all the additional payments, but I can't say whether it's all member states or one is missing. We can we can have a look at that. As regards the, um, the under implementation for Chip-seq, the Galileo and defense. As I said, you have the detailed explanations in the transfer proposal, but I can read from it. So for the chip chips joint undertaking, the surplus is due to the complexity of the procurement procedure for establishing the pilot lines that are to facilitate innovation in semiconductor production. For Galileo and Egnos, there are some delays affecting the new version of Egnos under development by industry generating a payment surplus. Uh, and also some delays, um, with the. Changes in the in the contract with the Galileo operations. So it is not so the commitments are fully implemented, but the payments will come as the contracts are signed. So it's not overall under implementation. Uh, why don't we need IPA? I think it's on the provisioning line. So it is not that we will not need it, but because it's for the guarantees and investment, it takes more time when we sign the guarantees agreement. And it does mean that the guarantee kicks in immediately. So we have a little bit more time to actually build in the the effective provisioning paid in, in the, in the provisioning fund. So, uh, it's not that we are not not signing the guarantee agreement as such. And I think that covers most of the questions. Thank you. ***Exchange of views with Prof. Leptin, President of the European Research Council (ERC)”
Size of EU budget · Cohesion and rural funding · Agricultural funding
- “About 700 million is linked to pillar one. So to the implementation of the plan, where not all the milestones were were fulfilled. But Ukraine has about 12 months to to fulfil those, those targets. So therefore we, we propose to carry those over automatically. So then once Ukraine fulfils these targets, we can pay. But then we have still about, uh, €469 million, which are not linked to the implementation of the plans, but they are linked to the interest rate subsidy and to the blending and guarantee instruments, where we assessed that these amounts will not be needed in 25 or 26. And therefore we rather propose to use the excess payments to lower, lower the additional additional needs in the budget. So overall, we propose to to decrease to increase the payments by 2.55 billion. We are also fine tuning some of some other elements like for the fisheries agreements we will have, I think one more transfer this year, but with that we will we will not be able to use fully the reserve line because not all the fisheries protocols will be concluded. And therefore we propose to release the reserve of €39.9 million in commitments and 22.4 million in payments. We also again updated the Customs Control Equipment instrument where unfortunately, member States are still not implementing fully This instrument are not requesting additional additional payments and commitments and therefore not to lose lose those amounts. We propose to cut 78 million in commitments and 48 million in payments on that budget line.”
Size of EU budget · Conditions to access EU budget · EU-Ukraine relations
- “In heading six, we see an increase in payments for the eastern neighbourhood, mainly for Moldova, for about 92 million, and this is mostly offset by the reduction of the Common provisioning fund, again, where we have more time to to build the provisioning. So we don't need €70 million there for special instruments. We have proposed exceptional, an increase of €7 million for payments for EGF. And this is because we will still come with one more case, uh, later in November, I think. And for that we will we will need additional payments that were not available on the line. So again, as I said, this is part of the package with top three. So we believe with this transfer and then the additional payments that we proposed in step three, we will be able to fully implement and also pay all the claims that we will receive by the end of the year. Thank you.”
Size of EU budget · European Globalisation Adjustment Fund · Funding for EU Neighbourhood
- “Uh, first of all, thanks. Thanks a lot to this committee for the speedy adoption of draft amending budget two. And and we now indeed with the last amending budget of the year as, as Mr. chairman, uh, kindly uh, introduced this point, it is actually linked to the global transfer that I will introduce right after this point. So what we do at the end of summer, early in September, we ask all our DGS and services to assess whether they have enough payments or too much payments to make sure that we implement the budget fully. And then what we can do, we do in the transfer, and I will present the global transfer. And what we cannot do, we do in an amending budget. And what we discovered this year, that there indeed, following the increase in DAP two for 3.5 billion for rural development, we still need a substantial increases also for rural development, but also especially for for cohesion. So therefore in this amending budget, we are actually increasing the the payments for, for the shared management funds by €3 billion. So, um, it is uh, here 2 billion for the European Regional Development Fund, 700 million for the European Social Fund Plus, and also 357 million for the Border Management and Visa instrument. This is based on the forecast that we received from the member States in summer. To make sure that we can pay all the bills that we receive this year. On the other hand, we have also reassessed the need for payments for the Ukraine facility, where we have discovered that we will have about 1.2 billion that we cannot implement this year out of the 1.2 billion.”
Size of EU budget · Cohesion and rural funding · Agricultural funding
- “Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Very quickly, the Dec 13 requests you to approve a transfer of 825,000 in commitments and 325,000in payment appropriations to to be able to sign a fisheries agreement with the Democratic Republic of Sao Tomé and Principe. Uh, the the Commission, uh, requested the council decision on the signing of the protocol in July. We expect this this signature in the protocol later in September with the provisional application as of October, and therefore we need to pay, uh, then the 325,000 for the rights already in 25 for the provisional application. Therefore, thanks. Thanks in advance for processing this transfer as quickly as you can.”
Funding for fisheries and aquaculture · Fisheries access for developing countries
- “Thank you very much. No, I think the Luxembourg as well as Strasbourg are the the seats of the institutions. So it's not a question to be addressed in the framework of this transfer. Maybe a treaty change.”
EP seat in Strasbourg
- “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And indeed, let me shortly present the the amending letter to the draft budget 2026. As you know, this is usually the last amendment that we do to the draft budget before the conciliation. So it is a usual update of of the latest figures usually on agriculture lately, also on the line. And anything that happens since June when we propose the draft budget. So let me go one by one through the points. So overall, we propose to reduce the level of commitment appropriations by €386 million and to decrease the level of payment by about €1.9 billion. Let me start with the big cut in payments, which is linked mainly to the adjustment of the impact of the cohesion mid-term review that was finally adopted in September. You might remember that in the draft budget, we expected this impact to be about €4.1 billion. But following all the negotiations and the final agreement, some of the incentives were downgraded. So overall, the impact for the for the 2026 payments is 1.4 billion lower. Therefore, in line with the agreement that the trilogue, we proposed to cut the payments by 1.4 billion, 1.3 billion for the Regional Development Fund and 100 million for the Social Social fund, the European Social Fund. Plus, then the second update that you also Expected is the update of the needs on the URI line. As you know, we have we have changed the approach to make sure that when we get into the consolidation, we know the final amount that needs to be financed in the following year in the budget.”
Size of EU budget · Cohesion and rural funding · Agricultural funding
- “So I think after the agreement, there was also updated legislative and financial statement that already presented that, that the need for the for the incentives will be 1.4 billion lower. Therefore, we just follow the legislative agreement on the liquidity management cost. Indeed, this is quite a specific element for this year and maybe next year because we are expecting a huge payments and we need to manage also the the borrowing during the year. We can't wait until we have all the claims and go to the market and borrow. I think we can also discuss tomorrow as we will have the NGO meeting where I think all members are invited. We can this this question will be will be addressed in in more detail. Indeed for agriculture, the promotion measures are increased. Increased also cover the by European campaign that the president announced in the state of the state of the Union. And I have to apologize because I didn't quite understand the question by, uh, by Mr. Juncker, but but we can come back bilaterally if or if we can answer the question. So, uh, so for agriculture, what we do, we, we take the final needs at the end of the agriculture year, and we introduce it in the draft budget so that we are sure that we cover all the needs. And it's also the same for the euro line, because we know now at the end of September what, what the needs will be. And that's what we include in the budget. But I'm not sure I've actually answered the questions. I was not quite sure. Uh, what what the question was. Sorry.”
Size of EU budget · Direct payments to farmers (pillar 1) · Agricultural funding
- “Also, due to delayed negotiations on plant genomics and amount of above 400 €400,000 in commitments can be planned for the European Food Safety Authority, can be returned to the Food Programme for the Single Market Programme and finally, to increase the efficiency and fully implement the amount, the top up that we receive for the pact on migration. We propose to transfer 48 million in commitments and 45 million in payments from the asylum agency to the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, because the agency will only start the activities linked to the pact on migration next year. While the MFF actions are already being implemented this year. This is all the changes on the expenditure side. We also have two substantial changes on the revenue side with the with the year closing, we have more information on the collection of customs duties, but also on the fines and penalties. And on both fronts we have additional additional revenue. So for the penalties and fines we can now include additional €1.2 billion, which became final and can be budgeted this year. So that will bring the total final amounts of fines in the 25 budget to €1.6 billion. In addition, we have also increased the amount of the collected customs duties by €1.3 billion. This is based on the collection until September. That is actually higher than what we expected in the forecasts. So overall, that actually brings the the difference between the additional revenue and additional payments to above €31.9 million. That will be that will need to be covered by Member States contributions.”
Asylum & border control · Own EU resources · Size of EU budget
- “Thank you very much for the questions. So maybe I'll start from the other end. So indeed the non implementation of the customs and control equipment is basically it's it's done by member states. And member states are later on on their implementation. However, you might remember that in the previous amending budget, we already actually transferred an amount from the customs instrument to finance actually sebum development. So it is not it is not linked. We are actually using some of the money that the member States don't need. Now to make sure that we we prepare for the sebum at the at the commission level on the long list of questions by the rapporteur. Indeed. So when we, uh, where how we choose, what we put where, it really depends what we can balance. So the global transfer is a transfer. So it has to add up. So we can only include uh the amounts that, that we, that we can balance. So we usually try to, to make sure that we balance within each heading. We also do some internal transfers so that we where it is possible for payments. And then for the bigger amounts it can be covered. Then we uh, we propose them in the, in the amending budget when they come for the Ukraine facility. Given that this is a special instrument financed and over and above the ceilings, it can be included in the in the global transfer. As such, it had to be included in the in the amending budget. So on the Ukraine facility itself, I think I've already answered that part. Part of the under implementation, about 700,000 is used for the investment and to the plan, but that will be carried over.”
Own EU resources · Size of EU budget · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies
- “Thank you very much. So maybe I will start with the answer. The cut for the for cohesion, the RDF 1.3 billion maybe to just explain that when we presented the draft budget, we also, at the same time or just shortly before presented the package for the cohesion mid-term revision, and there were some proposals that if a member state or region reprogram, there will be some incentives, increased co-financing and pre-financing for those programmes. And at that moment we assessed that the impact of of this reprogramming, once adopted, would be about 4.1 billion out of it. I think most of it was about 3 billion or 2.7 for for eRDF. But then after the negotiation between the Council and the Parliament, some of these incentives were, uh, were changed. And the impact then was that actually we expect with the reprogramming. So the Pre-financing was a bit lower. The threshold was was different. So the impact of the mid-term revision as such no longer is 4.1 billion, but but only 2.7 billion I think. So we can cut 1.3 billion in regional development and 0.1 billion in, in the ESF plus. But this is strictly linked to the cohesion. Uh, review. We will obviously during the period, uh, assess as we do now the implementation. And as we have done now with the draft amending budget three, which I will present shortly, if there is a need for for higher payments, we will come back, uh, after summer next year, as we do every year. But when presenting the draft budget, we had a very clear link to the to the proposal for the revision of the cohesion. And then the final agreement was different.”
Size of EU budget · Cohesion and rural funding · Conditions to access EU budget
- “Therefore, overall, we actually on the voted budget, we propose a cut of the voted appropriations, which, however, doesn't mean that we are cutting the the agriculture needs that will be fully financed, which are higher but financed by carryover like the agricultural reserve or higher assigned revenue. As a result, however, we we have higher margin under heading three, which now equals to about €411 million. We are also updating slightly the fisheries agreements, where we put about 2 million more on the operational lines for the for the fisheries agreements and the protocols that were already concluded with Cote d'Ivoire, Sao Tomé and Principe and the Cook Islands. Then we have also a whole list of updates for agencies, most of them linked to the state of play of of legislative files. So I will run through them very quickly. So for the European Environment Agency, we propose a reinforcement of €300,000 following the agreement on the Soil Monitoring law. This amount will be offset from the life programme for the European Agency for Law Enforcement Training Cepol. We propose a reinforcement of half a million to make sure that that their new IT environment solution, put in place after the cyber attack in 2024, can be fully functional. This amount will be fully offset from the Internal Security Fund for the European Chemicals Agency, Echa.”
Size of EU budget · Funding for fisheries and aquaculture · Agricultural funding
- “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thanks, Ruth, for, for the presentation of of the plans and how they should be implemented. I will just add the financial perspective to this. So, as you might know, the Social Climate Fund's financial envelope is about €86.6 billion. Out of that, €65 billion comes from an EU contribution from the from the auctioning of the of the ETS allowances. And as already mentioned, there is expected 25% contribution from the Member states. So it is actually an instrument which is outside the EU budget and it is financed by external assigned revenue. But you may remember, or at least some of you, that originally when we proposed the Social Climate Fund, we actually proposed that it would be fully integrated in the budget and in the MFF, financed by ETS as an own resource. But because at the time of the adoption of the Social Climate Fund, the ETS directive has not been adopted, and also the decision on actually having the ETS as an own resource hasn't been taken. Therefore, the decision was to to finance it by external assigned revenue. But both the ETS directive and the Social Climate Fund regulation actually include provisions that foresee that in case the ETS becomes own resource, the Social Climate Fund will become a part of the EU budget. So on the on the amounts Uh, they actually the ETS directive, uh, foresees that we will use 50 million allowances from the existing ETS one to be auctioned already this year to start financing the Social Climate Fund. As of 2026, while the ETS two, in principle, enters into force in 2007 or in 2008 if there is one year, one year delay.”
Extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme · Own EU resources · Size of EU budget
- “Maybe I will start and then pass on the floor to Ruth to answer the specific question on the plans. So indeed, I think the ETS two is is an additional. It is not a tax, but it is an additional incentive to actually invest in energy sustainability. So and what what there is a very clear link to the Social Climate Fund which because in order to prevent or help the vulnerable. So those who can't afford it to actually protect them to, to invest in more sustainable forms of transport or at the example, as Ruth mentioned, if we have big building blocks which are not energy sustainable. So to help these buildings and the people who live in these buildings, to actually insulate the building so that they then, uh, pay less for the energy. So, so there is a clear link. So there is an incentive for the ETS to, to increase our energy efficiency, to invest. And for those that can't afford it, we would help them as a social, social measure to make sure that the the least or the so the the most vulnerable are not exposed to unnecessarily to these, to these necessary investments. But it also doesn't mean that if if the impact for Italy would be 40 billion, that the 4040 billion are financing half of the social climate plans. It's only a small part of the ETS to revenue that would actually be transferred for this purpose. Most of these revenues would remain in the member states to invest the way they feel fit. Uh, also to to achieve these these objectives. Thank you.”
Extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme · Energy efficiency · Energy performance of buildings
- “Thank you very much. I just wanted to add that as this is the the last amending budget of the year, when we are trying to to really update both on the expenditure side and on the revenue side to the latest available information to our needs, but also to the best, best forecast of of the revenue to be to be received. We have, however, one update that we can now propose. It is a bit late in the process. So uh, so I will explain how we are proposing to do it, but you might have seen that Eurostat published on Friday on the 31st of October, the final salary adjustment for 2025, which will be applied as of 1st of July 2025. And this salary update salary coefficient is lower than what we foreseen in the budget 2025. So while we foreseen the update of 3.7% now, the final uh confirmed update is only three 3%. This has an impact on the salary and pensions appropriations that we included in the 2025 budget. And after discussions with all institutions, we can now confirm that about €78.8 million can be returned, uh, for for the salary lines, because they won't be, uh, won't be needed. This will also reduce the amount of the single margin instrument that we actually propose to, to use, and overall the level of of the budget in 2025. Given that we are so late in the process and proposing a new amending budget or amending letter to to the DUP, three would take uh, few weeks and then might result in in late adoption or no adoption. We propose to provide the council in their reading with this update to include for all institutions as we have received it, uh, so that the council can include it in their reading. And then when, when you, uh, as, uh, get the council position, uh, for your reading, uh, you will be able to assess that as well. We believe, again, it's in principle a factual update. And we thank you in advance for taking this into consideration. Thank you.”
Own EU resources · Size of EU budget · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies
- “Thank you very much. So indeed, I've confirmed it's part of the agreement, and indeed we can confirm that we do not plan at the moment any further MFA grants part. So the 40 million was available at the time of the Moldova Agreement was was reached. Indeed. There is 19 million left on the line, which we accept for a small, small amount, which we expect to finance some operational assessment and ex-post evaluation studies we assume won't be needed. So normally, you know, in the autumn we will see where the needs are the biggest and we will come probably with with a transfer request to use, use that port to wherever, wherever they will be will be needed on the 37 million. It is indeed within the Eastern Partnership. And it's partly, I think, recoveries and partly, Partly a reshuffling between regional lines, but we can come back in in writing on that part if useful.”
Size of EU budget · EU-Moldova relations · Funding for EU Neighbourhood
- “Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Uh, indeed. This first, uh, first draft proposal for the for the transfer is linked to the agreement on the Moldova facility. So first of all, let me thank you again for the for the help to to have this legislative proposal adopted so swiftly. It entered into force in March. And you will all remember that part of the final agreement in the last trilogue was a proposal to increase the non-repayable part of the Moldova facility by 100 million, and the 100 million are to be financed partly through a redeployment from the Macrofinancial assistance grants for 40 million, partly within the Eastern Neighbourhood budget line of Ndiki, and partly from the emergency uh Challenges and Priorities cushion of 23 million. You have received a letter announcing the split and also announcing the mobilisation of the cushion. So this deck is basically implementing this, uh, this agreement. So we propose to to transfer 40 million from the grants line to the MFA grants land to the Ndiki, and this will reinforce the Eastern Neighbourhood Line for 38.6 million and 1.4 million will increase the administrative line in line with the legislative and financial statements, to support the implementation of the Moldova facility. Thank you very much.”
EU-Moldova relations · Funding for EU Neighbourhood · EU relations with Eastern Neighbourhood
- “It is. It helps the member states and the candidate countries in the post-disaster recovery, but it is not really a rapid response instrument as as you know, it takes several months before the damages are estimated. And then we can assess and propose propose the mobilization. However, it still helps the regions and the member States to to show the solidarity with with those disaster disaster stricken regions. Then, as I also mentioned, the emergency aid reserve is mainly used for the humanitarian assistance, but it also can be used to support emergencies within the EU, and it has been used in the past to top up, for example, the European Civil Protection Mechanism where we needed to help. Also, it can be used internally and externally. So for example, when there was a the earthquake in Turkey, we could also use the CPM and we needed some top ups from the Solidarity Reserve, both for the humanitarian aid and the CPM. Maybe I'll also recall that last year, after the the horrible floods in the Central and Eastern Europe and then also in Valencia, we have proposed changes to the existing legal basis for the Cohesion Fund, but also for the rural development to allow the member states, if they choose so, to reprogram their cohesion or Rural Development Fund to use them to help rebuild the regions that were hit by.”
Cohesion and rural funding · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “So as you can see, there is actually a lot of instruments across the EU budget, both for adaptation mitigation and also for for reaction so that we can prepare. But of course, even if each of the instruments and I have quoted some amounts do provide these measures and we do invest. It is important that we step up this these efforts, especially for mitigation and adaptation and prevention, so that we can actually avoid the high cost of of then reacting and recovering after after big disaster. So therefore we have also recently the Commission adopted this union preparedness strategy to clarify that across all policies across all regions, not only financial, but we need to really think about preparedness by design, because as you said, the climate change is progressing and there are more and more not only natural disasters, but also man made disasters. So we need to step up our efforts also in the preparation of the next MFF and do more to to be prepared and mitigate before we are hit. Thank you.”
Size of EU budget · EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “I think there was one particular question about the payment delays and we can do something about it. So as as explained, the USF is not a really rapid response, uh, Instrument. That's what we do immediately with the. With the civil protection mechanism. React you there we are immediately. As soon as the member state ask for help, we are there or the other member States help. So this is really the measure to to help immediately to show the solidarity immediately after. And then by the time it gets to the Solidarity Fund, indeed is also Madam Rubio explained, we need time to, you know, the member states have 12 weeks to assess the damage, to ask. Then we have to assess the damage. We can use other instruments that actually are helpful with the member states or Copernicus to to see the the actual damage. But it takes a while. And then when we assess and propose, I think the first thing we can do, we pay Pre-financing if the member states ask for it so that that is done relatively fast, as soon as we received the the request. But then by the time we actually pay, sometimes it's not only the time for the member States assessment, additional information, our assessment, but then it might also be the time of the year, the other disasters because, as you know, the USF regulation says that you have to keep 25% of the envelope for the last quarter of the year to make sure that you can use the availabilities.”
Size of EU budget · Conditions to access EU budget · EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “So for some disasters, we have to wait until this envelope is actually available. It makes sense because you want to show solidarity. So if there are disasters later in the year, you want to have money left so that you can say, oh, we spend it all in January and now we have nothing, but then it leads to some some delays. So again, it is not a rapid response. It's a solidarity mechanism to show that that we care without without the regions and member States that that that are stricken by disaster. But it is definitely not not a fast, fast response, that's for sure. And we will definitely look into how we can improve and combine our instrument to make it faster in the next MFF.”
Size of EU budget · Cohesion and rural funding · EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “Good morning. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for the floor. Indeed this is the eighth budgetary authority transfer that we that we proposed to you. This concerns the transfer from the reserve line to the line of the salaries for this, uh, housing allowance to be provided to our colleagues that are working in Luxembourg and that are in the lower, lower paid categories of staff. You may remember that during the budget discussions last year, and when the budget was adopted for this year, we have there was an agreement to provide financing to all the institutions with staff in Luxembourg to help these these colleagues in the lower earning categories with their with their housing allowance. So all the concerned institutions the Parliament, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors and also us, we all adopted the decision providing for this, for this allowance. And the Commission adopted this decision in on 18th March 2025. Following that, we are now proposing to transfer the amount for the Commission, 3,000,003.77 million from the reserves so that we can start paying these allowances. The plan is that we will start paying in July, but retroactively from 1st of January. The other institutions, including the parliament, made the transfer previously. So we hope that it won't be a problem in our case either. Thank you very much.”
Size of EU budget · Budget for EU politicians · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies
- “It is the Parliament and the Council, with the budget adopting the full nomenclature. So the nomenclature that is proposed in the legislative financial statements at this stage, obviously is not exhaustive, and we are obviously ready to to engage in a discussion on, on on the level of detail that will allow transparency but also manageability of the budget. It is also important for the ambitious budget to have own resources. So we are very happy that the Parliament is always on, on the support of, of introduction of new own resources, which would allow indeed to increase our ambition and invest in the new priorities. Uh, we also believe that discussions have progressed well these past few months, and we stand ready to work constructively and push push to work towards an agreement by end 2026. Because obviously the later the agreement comes at the later the next MFF will be in place or rather positively, the earlier the MFF agreement comes, the earlier the MFF will be implemented. Therefore, I believe it is really, really important. And congratulations to the rapporteurs to come with the mandate of the European Parliament to be ready to start the negotiations with the Council as soon as the Council is ready to negotiate. Obviously, we are here as a commission to assess both the European Parliament and the Council in your roles as a legislative and budgetary authority. Many thanks.”
Own EU resources · Size of EU budget · Conditions to access EU budget
- “And this was a deliberate choice to to start actually helping the vulnerable groups before the ETS two measures actually enter into force. Um, I will maybe, maybe also explain that we have also proposed, um, uh, proposed the allocation by member states. The allocation, the annual financial allocation by member states is based on a methodology which is presented in the annex one of the SFS, the Social Climate Fund regulation, and includes a basket of indicators such as population at risk of poverty in rural areas, average household CO2, fuel combustion, share of households at risk of poverty with areas or areas on utility bills. Total population in 2019. Gross national income per capita and national targets for sector reduction in GHG emissions by 2030. Therefore, we have. We have a full financing table where each member state knows how how much they are expected to to receive for for their plans once the plans are adopted and they can start implementing it. And indeed, we have started in the budget, the auctioning of the first 50 million of the allowances so that we can achieve the first 4 billion. That should start to be implemented as of 2026. We already have a structured budgetary structure in the budget 26, which is included in heading three. As it is assigned revenue, it will be with PMS, but it was assumed that it would be ready in case the Social Climate Fund became fully financed within within the EU budget, financed by own resources. So I think it's an opening. I will leave it there. And we are here with Ruth to to answer your questions.”
Extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme · Own EU resources · Size of EU budget
- “Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So maybe just to to repeat a few few points from our point of view. So as, uh, when we proposed the, uh, the next MFF, we really believe that we are proposing something that will be modern, agile and impactful. We proposed a budget that is better aligned with European strategic priorities and capable to respond to geopolitical, economic, and societal challenges. Therefore, we need an MFF where flexibility will be based on strong governance and transparent process, together with the involvement of regional and local authorities. Uh, we are obviously following since we propose, uh, presented our proposals in July. And as you obviously are well aware, we have also proposed some additions, like the addition of the rural target and the regional check proposed in November. The Commission has heard and addressed the concerns of European Parliament and the Council. The introduction of the regional check contributes to reassure the regional and local authorities. We are also counting on the European Parliament to to help us and support some crucial novelties in, in the, in the proposals. So, for example, for the crisis mechanism that will allow to provide the Member States with means to address the consequences of severe crisis or threats. We discussed many times that the crisis and the natural disasters are not if, but when and where. So therefore we incorporated it directly in the proposals. It would also come on top of the Catalyst Europe policy loans putting EU budget at the service of all Europeans.”
Own EU resources · Size of EU budget · Cohesion and rural funding
- “Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. This, this. In this case, it regards a transfer for the Ukraine facility and basically regards 21.6 million that we are proposing to transfer from original planned administrative expenditure to operational expenditure. And part of it, 19 million was actually carried over from 2025, when we found some savings on the administrative line of the of the Ukraine facility. And that was mainly because the Ukraine facility legal base was adopted in February and took some time to onboard all the additional staff. And also in the first year of the implementation of the Ukraine facility, it was not necessary to use all the planned amounts for technical assistance, for evaluation and so on that will be needed needed later. On top of that, given the security situation, we planned to have a significant number of colleagues actually in Kiev. But given the security situation, we have proposed to actually, uh, manage the funds rather from the headquarters from Brussels. So 25 colleagues, which were originally planned to, to be in Kiev, will actually stay here in headquarters, which provide savings of about 2.6 million annually. So With 19 million carried over and unused in 25, and the 2.6 million which will be saved in in 25. We propose to reinforce the operation line for, uh, for Ukraine and to reinforce pillar three and help in the cooperation in the domain of Union accession assistance, including repairs, energy and so on. Thank you.”
Size of EU budget · Russia-Ukraine conflict (10th term) · EU-Ukraine relations
- “Thank you very much. Uh, to the rapporteur, Mr. Chairman, for passing on the questions. So which actions? As I already mentioned, this is indeed to help Ukraine in the actions within pillar three of the Ukraine facility to help aligning with the with the union acquis to, to adopt the the legal acts, but also with some like energy repairs, uh, and so on on the slow recruitment. Indeed. I think the adoption of the legal base allowed us to to recruit a large number of staff, but obviously that takes takes time. So it was progressively and by now we are fully up to speed on the security situation. The fact was that even the people that we expected to be in Kyiv actually couldn't be in Kyiv. So. So there were for the security situation, actually based in headquarters but formally employed in Kyiv. So what we what we are proposing to do is to regularize this. And for them having actually the at the place of employment in, in Brussels in headquarters. So as regards the support provided actually to the implementation of the plan, it is about the same because they simply can't be on the spot given the security situation. And that overall provides 2.6 million in savings on administrative expenditure, which can be used on the on the operational side.”
Size of EU budget · Russia-Ukraine conflict (10th term) · EU-Ukraine relations
- “No, thank you very much, Madam Chair. I just want to thank the rapporteur and colleagues for the support, because indeed, it's important to, uh, to provide help to, uh, to these workers. Just to add that, uh, the mobilization is accompanied by a transfer of the same amount in commitments, uh, which will be then immediately used once the mobilization decision and, and the transfer are approved and the payment, the amount and payment is already on the, on the line as provided in the global transfer. But thank you very much for the support.”
Size of EU budget · European Globalisation Adjustment Fund · Conditions to access EU budget
- “Yes. Thank you. So indeed, on the amount the final amount that we have today, after discussing with all the institutions is a little bit higher than we mentioned yesterday in the trialogue, is €78.8 million and indeed Incorporates all the returns by all the institutions, including the European Parliament, so the detail will be provided in the reading. But again, these are amounts that all institutions, after assessing their needs and their salary lines, confirm that they will not need. And therefore the we will propose to include in the Council reading to cut the salary lines and the pensions and the European schools in in the 2014 budget so that we that these appropriations don't lapse at the end of the year. That will indeed free the same amount, 78.8 million of the single margin instrument that was that was originally proposed to be mobilised, which will become available in the later years. The lower base rate of actually 2025 will also result in lower needs in 26 and 27. So we will also propose the changes to the 26th level of salaries and pension. Next, next week when we do the next step in the in the conciliation. And I think the Commissioner also mentioned yesterday the amount now for 26 amount is around 200 million and will be indeed also provided as a technical update to the conciliation for the procedure itself. Indeed, the fastest way at this point of time of the year is for us to provide the technical update for the council. The council will include it in the reading and then, as usual, in the next step, you as as the second arm of the budgetary authority, you then uh, you can accept or refuse the council reading, but, uh, they will uh, from what we have understood and I discussed it also this this afternoon would approve the budget, the draft amending budget as proposed, including this amendment. And then it will come to you again to accept the accept the council reading, including this technical update.”
Size of EU budget · Budget for EU politicians · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies
- “Again, doesn't mean that those activities won't be implemented. It's just the payments will come a bit later. So both for Egnos Galileo and the Secure Connectivity Program, each of them, need about 100 million less than we planned. This is partly increased in heading one by increased need for avian influenza and African swine fever under the food chain strand of the single market programme that needs about €80 million more. Also, we need a bit more for the customs programme. So this is what we implement, rather than the customs equipment that's implemented with member states in heading to be. The main change is due to some delays in the EU four health programmes, about 27 million in payments is not needed. On the other hand, we can increase a similar amount about 26 million in Erasmus+ to pay additional needs to the national agencies. In heading three, we have increase of payments for the rural development. So just to recall that we have increased the rural development payments by €3.5 billion and up to. And now we are asking for additional €400 million. This is really linked to the final, updated request that we received from the member states end of August in heading four. We we have an increase in payments for the IT agency by 47 million, which is then unfortunately more than offset by reductions in heading five, uh, in particular for the European Defence Fund, 30 million less needed and the two short term defence instruments ASAP, €66 million and the 39 almost €40 million, which shows that it takes some time to get these new and scale up programmes at cruising speed.”
Size of EU budget · Cohesion and rural funding · EU research funding
- “We have also small savings on the technical support instrument line, about 5 million, both in commitments and payments. The payments are in the global transfer of 5 million commitments. We propose to cut here, which is thanks to basically cheaper, cheaper implementation of some of those projects. Then again, we have a long list of nine decentralised agencies with with some amendments again linked to legislative procedures. So for the anti-money laundering authority, while we have actually increased the establishment plan so that the Anti-Money Laundering Authority can launch their, uh, you know, hiring procedures, they actually won't be able to hire all the staff in time, and they will return about 600 zero zero €600,000. Then the Ecdc, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, will require about 700,000 increase to cover the impact of exchange rate fluctuations this year, which have affected staff, remunerations and administrative costs for the Eiopa, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and European Securities and Markets Authority. The negotiations on the Retail Investment Strategy are still ongoing. Therefore, about €0.9 million can be returned this year and won't be used for the chemicals agency Echa and the Environment Agency EPA. The negotiations on the zero polluting package is still ongoing. Therefore, 6.4 million can be returned to the Life programme and implemented there. Similarly, since the negotiations on the maritime safety package will be concluded only late this year, €1.8 million Euro that was allocated to the European Maritime Safety Agency can be returned to the. To the CEF programme to the Connecting Europe Facility programme.”
Anti-money laundering regulation · Size of EU budget · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies
- “And the other part that we are proposing to cut is, is linked to the blending and guarantees and the time profile when we actually load these guarantees are signed and when we effectively need to pay, pay the amounts on the. Indeed. So the absorption rate in cohesion is increasing substantially. We will have the payments meeting tomorrow where we actually address all these points on on the implementation and increase. I think the since last year, the uh, the selection rate of of all the projects increased to 50%. So we are indeed finally, uh, really reaching a cruising speed so we can provide more, uh, more more explanations tomorrow in the payments meeting for the agencies as we when we propose that the new proposals are financed by offsetting from a different programs, and then the legislative procedure is, is delayed, instead of not using the appropriations or cutting them, we we propose to return them to the original program. If we if we in the first place propose to to use use them from the program so the program can actually use it. And then indeed on the finance and penalty payments, about half is on the penalty payments of member states and about half is on with with companies that lost our competition cases and the surplus on the customs duties. It is, you know, the the environment in the trade environment is really unpredictable. So we don't really know which way it goes. But at the moment we have actually collected more than we expected. It might go the other way around next year, but we will have to follow that very closely. Thank you.”
Size of EU budget · Cohesion and rural funding · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies
- “So we basically take the, uh, the cost of all the disbursement by the end of September. So as we proposed amending letter in on 8th of October, we know exactly how much we have disbursed by end of October and what the cost is. So overall, as we, uh, disbursed about €5.5 billion less than expected, uh, this cost to be included in the 26 budget is a bit, uh, bit lower, unfortunately. On the other hand, we have also an increase in the cost of the liquidity, uh, which are about 100 million above the the cost that we estimated at the time of the draft budget. Therefore, the saving for 26 budget is €51 million all together, and respecting the cascade and the fact that we finance 50% from the existing availabilities and 50% from the yuri instrument. Both, uh, both the instrument and the flexibility instrument are lowered by 25.5 million. The next update, uh, again, this is the main usually used to be the main element of this amending letter is the update of agriculture. So, uh, we basically take what the latest available information that we have towards the end of September on the implementation of the agriculture year. And we update both the needs, uh, and also the availabilities. So while the actually identified additional needs are higher by 426 million, we also have higher, uh, additional assigned revenue expected uh, next year and also some higher carryover, uh, of uh, of the agricultural reserve that hasn't been used this year.”
Size of EU budget · Direct payments to farmers (pillar 1) · Agricultural funding
- “Very sorry. Uh. As I as I indeed explained, uh, this is part of the overall exercise where we are assessing how much how much payments we need until the end of the year. So, uh, we have, uh, after the end of the exercise, uh, we have found out that we can transfer about 800 million between different budget lines. Uh, this, in fact, is about 60 budget lines. 27 budget lines we are proposing to reinforce and 33 budget lines we are proposing to cut, it is relatively limited compared to previous years. It only concerns about half a percent of the total payment appropriations in the 25 budget. As I said, it's a budgetary neutral exercise. We are just making sure that we can reuse the money where they are not needed on the lines where more is needed. So you, uh, you could see in the transfer proposal, there are all details, explanation per budget line, but I may be only mention the main ones heading by heading. So if I start in heading one, uh, there is some under implementation for the new activities carried out by the Chips joint undertaking, uh, which take a bit, a bit more time to implement. And also space programs, both for Egnos Galileo activities and the Secure Connectivity program.”
Size of EU budget · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies · Accounting and auditing of EU budget
- “No, I just can thank the rapporteur for supporting the amending budget. Maybe on the question regarding the forecasts of the traditional resources. So the customs duties and plastics. I can just repeat again the the procedure we when we prepare the budget to be adopted, we do the forecast in May of year for for the 25 budget. In May 24th, we did the first forecast of customs duties to be collected also for the plastics. And in May 25th, on the basis of the, you know, actual execution in the first 4 or 5 months and the new updated economic forecast, we update the still forecast because obviously we we don't know yet, and especially for the customs duties, as you well don't know what the situation is evolving very, very quickly. So what we are trying to do is to get the forecast for the member states to contribute on the basis of the most precise data, but it is still forecast. And then obviously one year later, there is still a balancing exercise to make sure that everyone contributes exactly as they should each member state based on the final, final statistics and final data. So indeed, there will always be small or bigger changes depending on the evolution. Forecasting the customs duties is very, very difficult, but I think it's it makes sure that there are no big surprises after the budgetary exercise. Otherwise for the cbam and the redeployment. Just to repeat that, that the, the customs equipment, uh, actually was not implemented. So therefore we could use the money. Thank you.”
Own resources (plastics) · Own EU resources · Size of EU budget
- “This will Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and good morning and welcome, everyone after the holidays. And also my best wishes to the chair for his speedy recovery. I can only support basically the rapporteurs assessment. As you know, we also don't see fair justification to the council cuts, especially to the programmes that were already cut in the mid-term revision last year like horizon or EU four health. We believe that with the draft budget, we proposed a fair proposal that respects the financial programming that respects the interinstitutional agreement. As usual, we will come early October with the amending letter where we look at the at the request, where we know the final, final numbers and we refine slightly from from the figures that we have now. There shouldn't be substantial changes, but we still have three, four weeks to go. So we will come then. But we also look at the other elements, and then I think we will have a very good basis for discussion. And we still believe that there is no need to go into the further cuts while still, of course, being a bit careful because of all the uncertainties that you already mentioned. So full support to your report. Thank you.”
Size of EU budget · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies · Conditions to access EU budget
- “Now, I do have to take the floor. And indeed we we hear you loud and clear. But I would still like to to explain again. And my colleague did it already before summer when when she presented the proposal. This was definitely not motivated by taking any democratic control of the parliament. The idea was really trying to make sure that the money gets to, uh, to the, uh, potentially, uh, you know, people who would become unemployed or the unemployed as quickly as possible. We would always come to you first. Show you what we know up front if we have signals, and then ask you if if need be for that amount. But obviously it was a proposal. We will respect the wisdom of the legislative authority. So we follow up on that. Maybe just one one more element on the technical assistance. Just to clarify, we are not tripling what I mean in principle, what it is now, but compared to the situation before the mid-term review cut, uh, this was the amount that was at the disposal of the colleagues to make evaluations, assessment and by automatically basically by keeping the percentage unchanged but lowering the overall amount, the amount that we have now available for the technical assistance is really low. It's 170,000. So we have to choose now which which steps we can do. So this again was not motivated to take away money from, from uh from the people. But really to make sure that we can, uh, we can follow up on evaluations and actions and so on. So just, uh, just maybe some explanations, but obviously no one intends to take democratic control from the Parliament.”
Size of EU budget · Discharge of EU institutions and agencies · European Globalisation Adjustment Fund
- “It focuses on a greener and low carbon Europe. More than 19 billion were allocated to this to this objective within the all possible programs. Out of it, 40 billion is provided from the EU funding and the rest is co-financing from the member states. The biggest part of this is from the European Regional and Development Fund with about 11 billion, a small amount from the Cohesion Fund 2.3 billion, and Interreg for the cross-border project of about €1 billion. Similarly, the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development also supports rural areas in addressing environmental and climate risks. While not disaster specific. It includes measures to reduce the vulnerability of farms and rural regions to floods, droughts, wildfires and other hazards. For the period 2014 and 2022, 2.6 billion was allocated under the Rural Development Programmes and most of it was already implemented under the new programmes. Under the new strategic plans for 2327. 2.9 billion is programmed for these measures. Third, with a total budget of 5.4 billion for this MFF for the 2127 period, the programme for Environment and Climate Action, The Life programme aims to facilitate the shift towards a sustainable, circular, energy efficient, renewable energy based, climate neutral and climate resilient economy. It contributes to reducing our vulnerability to the harmful effects of climate change by the end of 2024. About 700 projects were financed for around 3 billion for the environment, nature and biodiversity, climate action and energy clean energy transition.”
Cohesion and rural funding
- “Sincerely. Uh, probably more, uh, more procedurally, I think this was an agreement between the European Parliament and the council, uh, to to provide 1.9 billion to Moldova, which is very important to, to submit to help them from energy point of view, but also from a democracy point of view. So this is just delivering on the agreement between the Parliament and the Council. And this is one way where within heading six, where we had a remaining availabilities for third countries. In any case, we will use it in this particular case for Moldova with agreement of the European Parliament and the Council. Thank you.”
EU-Moldova relations · Funding for EU Neighbourhood