Opinion on a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast)

25.4.2023

Ms Monika Hohlmeier

Chair

Committee on Budgetary control

BRUSSELS

Mr Johan Van Overtveldt

Chair

Committee on Budgets

BRUSSELS

Subject: Opinion on a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast) (COM(2022)0223 – C90179/2022 – 2022/0162(COD))

Dear Chairs,

The Committee on Legal Affairs has examined the proposal referred to above pursuant to Rule 110 on recasting of Parliament's Rules of Procedure.

Paragraph 3 of that Rule reads as follows:

“If the committee responsible for legal affairs considers that the proposal does not entail any substantive changes other than those identified as such in the proposal, it shall inform the committee responsible for the subject matter thereof.

In such a case, over and above the conditions laid down in Rules 180 and 181, amendments shall be admissible within the committee responsible for the subject-matter only if they concern those parts of the proposal which contain changes.

However, amendments to parts of the proposal which remain unchanged may, by way of exception and on a case-by-case basis, be accepted by the Chair of the committee responsible for the subject matter if he or she considers that this is necessary for pressing reasons relating to the internal logic of the text or because the amendments are inextricably linked to other admissible amendments. Such reasons must be stated in a written justification to the amendments.”

Following the here attached opinion of the Consultative Working Party of the Legal Services of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission, which has examined the recast proposal, and in keeping with the recommendations of the Rapporteur, the Committee on Legal Affairs considers that the proposal in question does not include any substantive changes other than those identified as such and that, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier act with those substantive amendments, the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing text, without any change in its substance.

As regards the amendments originating from a later act, that is Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2022/2434, which was proposed and adopted after the proposal for the recast of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 was submitted, the Committee on Legal Affairs considers that those amendments should also be incorporated into the final text of the recast version of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046.

In conclusion, at its meeting of 25 April 2023, the Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously decided to recommend that the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committees responsible, proceed to examine the above proposal in accordance with Rule 110.

Yours sincerely,

Adrián Vázquez Lázara

Encl.: Opinion of the Consultative Working Party.

Annex

Brussels, 11 April 2023

OPINION

FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

THE COUNCIL

THE COMMISSION

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union

COM(2022)0223 of 16.5.2022 – 2022/0162(COD)

Having regard to the Inter-institutional Agreement of 28 November 2001 on a more structured use of the recasting technique for legal acts, and in particular to point 9 thereof, the Consultative Working Party consisting of the respective legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission met on 19 January, 25 January and 2 February 2023 for the purpose of examining the aforementioned proposal submitted by the Commission.

At those meetings, an examination of the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council recasting Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union resulted in the Consultative Working Party’s establishing, by common accord, as follows.

1. The following should have been marked with the grey-shaded type generally used for identifying substantive amendments:

- the deletion of recital 181 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046;

- in Article 14(1), the replacement of the words ‘without prejudice to’ with the word ‘notwithstanding’;

- in Article 32(2), first subparagraph, the adding of the words ‘under Article 9(1), point (b), of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093’;

- in Article 32(2), third subparagraph, the adding of the words ‘for assistance under Article 9(1), point (b), of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093’;

- in Article 38(2)(b), the adding of the words ‘first and last’;

- in Article 49(1), second subparagraph, the replacement of the reference made to ‘point (c) of the first subparagraph of Article 30(1)’ with a reference to ‘Article 30(2), point (a)’;

- in Article 62(1), first subparagraph, point (a), the replacement of the article number ‘153’ with ‘157’;

- in Article 62(1), first subparagraph, point (c), introductory wording, the replacement of the article number ‘149’ with ‘153’;

- in Article 93(4), first subparagraph, introductory wording, the replacement of the reference made to ‘Article 143(2)’ with a reference to ‘Article 146(2), subparagraph 1, points (a) and (b)’;

- in Article 113(4), first subparagraph, the deletion of the words ‘either’ and ‘or’;

- in Article 138(4), second subparagraph, the adding of the indication ‘and (8)’;

- in Article 139(1), point (c)(iv), the deletion of the word ‘procedure’;

- in Article 139(4), point (f)(ii), the adding of the word ‘or’;

- in Article 162(2), the replacement of the reference made to ‘Article 155(5)’ with a reference to ‘Article 159(8)’;

- in Article 200(1), point (d), the replacement of the reference made to ‘point (c) of the first subparagraph of Article 62(1)’ with a reference to ‘Article 62(1), first subparagraph, point (b)’;

- in Article 253(1), point (d), the replacement of the reference made to ‘Article 118(4)’ with a reference to ‘Article 119(8)’;

- in Article 275(1), the deletion of the third sentence of Article 279(1) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046;

- in Article 278, second paragraph, the replacement of the date ‘2 August 2018’ with the indication ‘[...]’;

- in the introductory wording of point 20.2 of Annex I, the adding of the words ‘in particular’.

2. In Article 41(2), first subparagraph, the reference made to ‘the Interinstitutional Agreement of 2 December 2013 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management’ should have been replaced with a reference to ‘the Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European 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 Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2020 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European 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’. The corresponding footnote no. 69 should read ‘OJ L 4331, 22.12.2020, p. 28’.

3. In Article 139(1), point (d)(iv), the words ‘in Article 4 of that Decision’ should have been replaced by the words ‘in Article 14 of that Directive’.

In consequence, examination of the proposal has enabled the Consultative Working Party to conclude, without dissent, that the proposal does not comprise any substantive amendments other than those identified as such.

The Working Party also concluded, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier act with those substantive amendments, that, at the time when proposal COM(2022) 223 final was submitted by the Commission to the European Parliament and to the Council, that proposal contained a straightforward codification of the existing legal text, without any change in its substance. However, after the submission of proposal COM(2022) 223 final, the Commission also submitted proposal COM(2022) 596 final and, as a result of the relevant legislative procedure, Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2022/2434 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 December 2022 amending Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 as regards the establishment of a diversified funding strategy as a general borrowing method was adopted and published in the Official Journal. The amendments originating from Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2022/2434 should therefore be incorporated in the final text of the recast version of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046.

F. DREXLER J.B. LAIGNELOT D. CALLEJA CRESPO

Jurisconsult acting Director-General Director-General