Sittings · Document
ORDINARY LEGISLATIVE procedure
Follow up to the European Parliament legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market
1. Rapporteur: Maria-Manuel LEITÃO-MARQUES (S&D / PT), Samira RAFAELA (Renew / NL)
2. Reference numbers: 2022/0269 (COD) / A9-0306/2023 / P9_TA(2024)0309
3. Date of adoption of the resolution: 23 April 2024
4. Legal basis: Articles 114 and 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
5. Competent Parliamentary Committee: Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), Committee on International Trade (INTA)
6. Commission's position: accepts all amendments. The Commission presented the following statement on the financing of resources for the implementation of the Forced Labour Regulation
“The European Commission notes that the final agreement reached by the co-legislators on the Regulation on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market has evolved significantly in terms of the staff and resources required for its implementation by the Commission, compared to the legislative financial statement which accompanied the original proposal (COM(2022) 453 final of 14.09.2022), which was based on a decentralised model of implementation combined with support for implementation at EU level.
The Commission recalls that, for the current MFF, the Commission is operating under the principle of stable staffing imposed by the budgetary authority, and – given the wide array of additional tasks that have been conferred upon the Union since the beginning of the MFF - it is already under severe constraints, making it difficult to cover even the existing tasks’ needs. There is no margin to finance additional officials or external staff. Therefore, any additional tasks conferred by the co-legislators upon the Commission shall be accompanied by corresponding resource reinforcements ensuring their effective implementation.
In light of the above, the additional Commission human resources required by the final agreement endorsed by the co-legislators will not allow the Commission to respect the principle of stable staffing.
This will require additional establishment plan posts and corresponding appropriations, to be authorised by the European Parliament and the Council during the annual budget procedure along with the related budgetary appropriations.
Furthermore, the Commission will also propose, in the framework of the annual budgetary procedure, the creation of additional budget lines under the Single Market Programme, the Customs Programme or both, financed from the Programme’s available appropriations, in so far as allowed under the respective legal bases, as identified in the updated Legislative Financial Statement provided by the Commission, which will also be used to finance the Commission’s implementation of the Regulation beyond the limit of the principle of stable staffing. These new budget lines will cover the cost of contractual agents and other administrative expenditures of the Commission in implementing the Regulation, to be authorised by the European Parliament and the Council during the annual budget procedure.”