PE454.497

The Conciliation Committee did not reach agreement on a Commission proposal for securing the financing of additional needs of the ITER project amounting to EUR 1.4 billion in 2012 and 2013.

An amount of EUR 460 million should be covered through redeployment from the Seventh Research Framework Programme within sub-heading 1a and an amount of EUR 940 million secured through a revision of the multiannual financial framework allowing a transfer of the margin from (sub-)headings 2, 3a and 5 in 2010 to sub-heading 1a in 2012 and 2013, while keeping the overall ceiling for commitments and payments over the period 2007-2013 unchanged.

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PURPOSE: to propose the revision of the multiannual financial framework 2007-2013 to address additional financing needs of the ITER project.

BACKGROUND: in response to the Council conclusions of 16 November 2009 (see Council doc 15818/09 ) on the next steps in the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project, the Commission transmitted to the European Parliament and to the Council, on 4 May 2010, a communication entitled "ITER status and possible way forward" addressing the financing gap and related governance conditions concerning ITER.

Following an exchange of views at the Competitiveness Council of 25 and 26 May 2010, the Spanish Presidency set up an ITER Task Force which concluded its work on 25 June 2010. The Council conclusions adopted on that basis confirmed the short-term need identified in the above mentioned Commission Communication for additional commitment appropriations of EUR 1.4 billion (EUR 800 million in 2012 and EUR 600 million in 2013), in current prices, for 2012 and 2013.

The Council called upon the Commission to present a proposal within the overall ceiling of the current multiannual financial framework including redeployment within Heading 1A "Competitiveness for Growth and Employment". The Commission has made clear its view that the EU budget cannot be asked to continue to deal with cost overruns. Therefore, the Commission intends to adopt the ITER baseline, currently expected to last until 2020, on the understanding that for the period after 2013 the EU budget will make a fixed, annual contribution, to be decided by the budgetary authority, to the costs of the project and that any future cost overruns will not fall on the EU budget.

As for the additional short-term financial needs for ITER (2012 and 2013), the Commission proposes a mix of financial sources including redeployment of funds from the Seventh Research Framework Programme within Heading 1 A and of unused funds between headings.

CONTENT: the present proposal aims at providing an amount of EUR 400 million by means of a revision of the multiannual financial framework while keeping the overall ceiling for commitment and payment appropriations over the period 2007-2013 unchanged . At the same time, an additional amount of EUR 460 million will be covered through redeployment from the Seventh Research Framework Programme within Heading 1A.

The commitment for financing the remaining amount of EUR 540 million shall be secured at a later stage, starting with the budgetary conciliation in November 2010[4] and, if need be, the following annual budgetary procedures by using all budgetary means foreseen in the multiannual financial framework.

The Commission proposes that the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission adopt a joint declaration to that purpose, by the latest in the framework of the November 2010 budgetary conciliation meeting.

The financing requires a revision of the multiannual financial framework 2007-2013 in accordance with Points 21, 22, and 23 of the Interinstitutional Agreement, so as to raise the ceilings for commitment appropriations under sub-Heading 1A by :

EUR 160 million for the year 2012; EUR 240 million for the year 2013 in current prices.

The increase of the ceilings for commitment appropriations under sub-Heading 1 A for the years 2012 and 2013 will be fully offset by a decrease of the ceiling for commitment appropriations under Heading 2 for the year 2010.

In order to keep an appropriate relationship between commitments and payments, the annual ceilings for payment appropriations will be adjusted. The adjustment will be neutral in terms of payment requirements over the period 2007-2013.

COM(2010)0403
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