7 Amendments of Rasmus ANDRESEN related to 2024/0056(BUD)
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the proposal to mobilise EUR 4,8 billion from the newly created Ukraine Reserve to enable the payment of grants to Ukraine; recalls that the payment of loans does not require an amending budget and therefore that the Union is already providing support to the Ukrainian government so that it can maintain essential services; stresses that grant- and loan-based financial support through the Ukraine Facility will help Ukraine keep the state functioning and in particular essential services functioning while contributing ton its path to reconstruction, recovery, reform and membership of the Union;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines that the budget nomenclature for the Ukraine Facility, introduced through Draft amending budget No 1/2024, will help to ensure that the budgetary authority can exercise proper scrutiny over spending; welcomes the inclusion in the Facility of interest rate subsidy payments for Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) provided to Ukraine in 2022, which will reduce pressure in Heading 6 (Neighbourhood and the World), in particular in the Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument - Global Europe cushion; recalls that Humanitarian Aid support for Ukraine is not covered by the Ukraine Facility and expects in this context that the Commission will ensure sufficient support to Ukraine as well as for the rest of the world in need from HUMA also in the 2024 budget;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that, on 5 March 2024, the Commission put forward a proposal to establish a new defence programme - the European Defence Industry Programme - for the period 2025-2027, with a planned transfer of EUR 1,5 billion from the EDF, precisely the amount of the EDF reinforcement agreed under STEP; insists that the additional resources assigned to the EDF for the remainder of the MFF period be used for STEP objectives; reiterates its long-standing position that new policy priorities require fresh money;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the additional EUR 500 million for the Western Balkans, placed in reserve subject to the adoption of the proposed regulation establishing the Growth and Reform Facility for the Western Balkans; emphasises that the inclusion in Draft amending budget No 1/2024 of the amounts and proposed nomenclature for that Facility does not prejudge the work of the co-legislators; points out, in that regard, that it does not consider the nomenclature as set out in Draft amending budget No 1/2024 to be fit for purpose and intends to ensure greater granularity and therefore better oversight for the budgetary authority; refrains from amending the amending budget in this regard solely due to the urgency of mobilising grants for Ukraine;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Welcomes the fact that the Union will be better able to respond to crises as a result of the increased financing for natural disasters and other emergencies included in Draft amending budget No 1/2024; notes that Draft amending budget No 1/2024 creates new lines in accordance with the decision to split the Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve into two parts - the European Solidarity Reserve for natural disasters and public health emergencies within the Union and in accession countries and the Emergency Aid Reserve for rapid response to emergencies inside and outside the Union; considers that the new architecture will make the funds easier to manage and expects that this will lead to more timely mobilisation of the Reserves if and when needed;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Expects humanitarian aid needs to remain high in 2024; and underlines the fact that HUMA remains sorely under- budgeted; taking into account the experience of the budget implementation in the previous years, calls on the Commission to monitor thosee humanitarian aid needs closely and to propose any necessary measures to the budgetary authority in good time; recalls, in that regard, that the Flexibility Instrument has been reinforced by around EUR 500 million for 2024 as part of the MFF revision;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Takes note of the changes to the budgetary remarks to enable the Digital Europe programme to finance the costs of recruiting contractual agents for the Artificial Intelligence Office established under the recently agreed Artificial Intelligence Act; underlines that such a workaround solution is only necessary owing to insufficient resources under Heading 7 (Administration) and to the Commission’s self-imposed stable staffing policy; insists, should be accepted only as an exceptional solution and cannot create any precedents for the future; insists, in that regard, that covering staffing costs for the new Office in this manner is a temporary fix and that a structural solution under Heading 7 must be found beyond the current MFF;