On the Council position on Draft amending budget No 3/2025 of the European Union for the financial year 2025 - Adjustment in payment appropriations, update of revenues and other technical updates

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

on the Council position on Draft amending budget No 3/2025 of the European Union for the financial year 2025- Adjustment in payment appropriations, update of revenues and other technical updates

(00000/2025 – C100000/2025 – 2025/0319(BUD))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Article 314 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,

– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, and in particular Article 44 thereof,

– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025, as definitively adopted on 27 November 2024,

– having regard to Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 of 17 December 2020 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027,

– having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2020 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, as well as on new own resources, including a roadmap towards the introduction of new own resources (IIA),

– having regard to Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2020/2053 EU of 14 December 2020 on the system of own resources of the European Union and repealing Decision 2014/335/EU, Euratom,

– having regard to Draft amending budget No 3/2025, which the Commission adopted on 3 October 2025 (COM(2025)0850),

– having regard to the position on Draft amending budget No 3/2025, which the Council adopted on [XX XX 2025] and forwarded to Parliament on [XX XX 2025] (00000/2025 – C100000/2025),

– having regard to Rules 96 and 98 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A100000/2025),

A. whereas the purpose of Draft amending budget No 3/2025 is to update the revenue side of the budget to take account of the latest developments, to adjust the expenditure side of the budget in relation to payment appropriations, and, additionally, to adjust the expenditure side of the budget in relation to a number of decentralised agencies;

B. whereas, in relation to expenditure, Draft amending budget No 3/2025 entails a net increase of EUR 123,7 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 2,52 billion in payment appropriations;

C. whereas Draft amending budget No 3/2025 proposes a number of adjustments to the financing of decentralised agencies across various headings;

D. whereas, on the revenue side, Draft amending budget No 3/2025 enters into the 2025 budget definitive fines and penalties paid up to September 2025, totalling EUR 1,19 billion as well as EUR 1,3 billion of additional Traditional Own Resources;

E. whereas, as a result of these adjustments, additional GNI contributions of EUR 31,9 million are required to meet the payment needs;

1. Takes note of Draft amending budget No 3/2025 as submitted by the Commission, and in particular of the overall very low impact on Member States’ GNI contributions, due to the balance of higher payment needs and additional revenue flows;

2. Welcomes the increased payment appropriations for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of EUR 2 billion, in conjunction with the reinforcements for the Common Agricultural Policy in this year’s Global Transfer (DEC 15/25), as a sign that programme implementation is gathering pace after a worryingly slow start in the 2021-2027 period; emphasises that the reinforcement of structural funds and CAP appropriations plays a crucial role in maintaining the continuity of agricultural support schemes, ensuring food security, and promoting sustainable rural development; notes that these measures are particularly important to strengthen the resilience of the agricultural sector and preserve the socio-economic balance in rural areas; recalls the complementarity of these increases with the adjustments to payment appropriation in the Global Transfer (DEC 15/2025);

3. Continues to urge the accelerated implementation of measures under the ERDF, the ESF+ and the Instrument for Financial Support for Border Management and Visa Policy (BMVI); welcomes the faster than expected uptake of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP); expects the more than EUR 3 billion in additional payments from STEP to be used swiftly and effectively for the specific objectives under the respective basic acts;

4. Takes note of the latest state of play regarding the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs) and welcomes the fact that, in line with the relevant provisions in the IIA, the budgetary authority has an active role in releasing the appropriations under reserve in function of the coming into force and application of the respective international implementing protocols;

5. Regrets the decrease in commitments (EUR 78 million) and payments (EUR 48 million) for the Customs Control Equipment Instrument (CCEI) due to delays in implementation in the Member States in times where cooperation and investments in this domain should be thriving;

6. Welcomes the savings in commitments (EUR 5 million) for the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) due to efficiency gains from competitive procurement procedures;

7. Takes note of the pace of implementation of reforms and the commensurate slowdown of the absorption of payments under the Ukraine Facility; acknowledges that parts of the non-absorbed appropriations may be carried over to the next budget year; encourages all actors involved to make progresses on measures linked to reforms and investments, such as the blending agreements;

8. Takes note of the adjustments of the Union contribution to various decentralised agencies; considers these adjustments mostly technical in nature; welcomes them in as far as they optimise the use of resources under the operational lines, such as LIFE, AMIF or the Single Market Programme; regrets, however, that the underlying reason for ‘returning’ commitment and payment appropriations from the respective agency lines to the related programme lines is a delay in the recruitment of staff or a delay in the roll-out of new policy and legislative initiatives such as Retail Investment Strategy (which concerns ESMA and EIOPA), the Asylum and Migration Pact (which concerns the EUAA), the maritime safety package (which concerns EMSA) or the proposal on new genomic techniques (which concerns EFSA);

9. In this context, highlights and reiterates its strong support for the newly established Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) in the revised anti-money laundering framework at Union level; remains deeply concerned by the continued delays in the set-up phase, in particular in relation to recruitment and calls for an acceleration of the relevant hiring processes;

10. Welcomes the incorporation in the budget of additional revenue stemming from definitive fines and penalty payments worth EUR 1 185,1 million; considers these amounts to be genuine Union revenue sources which decrease the GNI-based contributions of the Member States; in this context, recalls that the Commission has proposed modifications for the next MFF period in order to ensure that such windfall revenue can lead to additional expenditure appropriations;

11. Takes note of the proposal to budget EUR 1 300 million of the estimated ‘surplus of Traditional Own Resources’; expresses doubts about the merit of repeated updates of the revenue stemming from customs duties in the course of the budget year, in particular outside the annual dedicated amending budget to update and regularise the revenue sides;

12. Approves the Council position on Draft amending budget No 3/2025;

13. Instructs its President to declare that Amending budget No 3/2025 has been definitively adopted and arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union;

14. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.