on the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin in 2020 to provide emergency assistance to Member States and further reinforce the Union Civil Protection Mechanism/rescEU in response to the COVID-19 outbreak

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

Council Regulation (EU, EURATOM) No 1311/2013 of 2 December 2013 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020 (‘MFF Regulation’) allows for the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin of up to 0,03 % of Gross National Income for the EU-28 to react to unforeseen circumstances as a last resort instrument. In the technical adjustment of the MFF for 2020, based on Article 6 of the MFF Regulation, the absolute amount of the Contingency Margin for the year 2020 is set at EUR 5 096,8 million.

The Commission submits today Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 2/2020. It includes an overall increase of commitment appropriations for heading 3 Security and Citizenship of EUR 3 000,0 million to cover the re-activation of the Emergency Support Instrument (ESI) within the Union to help Member States tackle the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak and to further reinforce the Union Civil Protection Mechanism/rescEU so as to facilitate wider stock-piling and coordination of essential resource distribution across Europe. This increase complements other reinforcements that concerned the same heading for an overall amount of EUR 423,3 million already proposed by the Commission in DAB No 1/2020.

Given the absence of room for redeployments under heading 3 and in line with the proposal, also submitted today, to amend the MFF Regulation removing the limitations in the scope of this instrument, the Commission proposes in DAB No 2/2020 the use of the Global Margin for Commitments for the full amount available under this special instrument of EUR 2 042,4 million.

In addition DAB No 2/2020 is accompanied by a proposal to amend Decision (EU) 2020/265 on the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument in 2020. This proposal, which increases the amount proposed to be mobilised by EUR 316,3 million, results in a total mobilisation of EUR 1 094,4 million in 2020 and exhausts the amount available under this special instrument.

Finally, the Commission proposes, as a last resort, to mobilise the Contingency Margin for 2020 for an amount of EUR 714,6 million to ensure the full financing of commitment appropriations related to expenditure under heading 3 in the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2020, over and above the commitment ceiling.

2.JUSTIFICATION OF THE MOBILISATION

2.1.INTRODUCTION

Emergency support may be awarded under Regulation (EU) 2016/369 in the event of an ongoing or potential natural or man-made disaster, where the exceptional scale and impact of the disaster is such that it gives rises to severe wide-ranging humanitarian consequences in one or more Member States and only in exceptional circumstances where no other instrument available to Member States and to the Union is sufficient.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the related disease (COVID-19) has been characterised by the World Health Organization (WHO) successively as a public health emergency of international concern and a global pandemic. The public health consequences of the outbreak are already severe and wide-ranging in the most affected Member States and continue to worsen as more Member States are heavily affected.

The Union Civil Protection Mechanism/rescEU has been reinforced both in DAB Nos 1 and 2/2020, the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative to deploy European Structural and Investment Funds was launched and other Union instruments are contributing to partly address the public health emergency. However, the scale and scope of the challenge requires to address effectively the public health related humanitarian consequences of the outbreak within the Union.

In the light of the above, the Commission proposes to re-activate and amend the Emergency Support Instrument (ESI) under Regulation (EU) 2016/369 in respect of the COVID-19 outbreak.

2.2.THE CONTINGENCY MARGIN AS THE LAST RESORT INSTRUMENT

Article 13(1) of the MFF Regulation defines the Contingency Margin as a last resort instrument to react to unforeseen circumstances. In accordance with point 14 of 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, the Commission has carried out an analysis of the possibility to reallocate significant amounts within the existing budget. In the 2020 budget, the Commission already proposed to use in full the unallocated margin under the commitment ceiling of heading 3. Moreover, EUR 778,1 million has been mobilised from the Flexibility Instrument in the adopted budget. There is therefore no scope for further redeployment within this heading.

The mobilisation of the remaining amount of the Flexibility Instrument has been proposed in DAB Nos 1 and 2/2020 to reach in total EUR 1 094,4 million. The scope of the Global Margin for Commitments is limited to growth and employment and migration and security and cannot be mobilised for COVID-19 outbreak measures. Therefore, the Commission proposes today to amend the MFF Regulation to remove the limitation in the scope of the Global Margin for Commitments and immediately to mobilise the full available amount for the Emergency Support Instrument and a further reinforcement of rescEU via DAB No 2/2020. Since the combined amount of the Global Margin for Commitments and the Flexibility instrument is insufficient to finance the proposed increase of commitment appropriations, the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin for 2020 is the only available – the last resort - instrument to finance the remaining additional expenditure above the ceiling of heading 3.

2.3.BUDGETARY IMPACT OF UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES IN 2020

The Commission proposes to mobilise EUR 714,6 million through the Contingency Margin to cover the additional needs related to the reactivation of the ESI.

The corresponding payment appropriations will be accommodated within the 2020 ceiling for payments (and beyond). There is no need to mobilise the Contingency Margin in payments.