COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the performance framework for the EU budget under the 2021-2027 MFF
Date: 2021-06-08
Institutions: Directorate-General for Budget, European Commission
Subjects: EU control, budget policy, coronavirus disease, economic recovery, epidemic, financial management, general budget (EU), implementation of the budget, multiannual financial framework, performance audit

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 8.6.2021  COM(2021) 366 final  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL   on the performance framework for the EU budget under the 2021-2027 MFF {SWD(2021) 133 final}  
 
 
Introduction 

The 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF) is at the heart of the EU’s economic policy framework, 
more so today than ever before. The EU budget will power the EU’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It 
will help to address the ongoing health emergency, kick-start the recovery, steer our economies and societies 
towards a more sustainable, digital and resilient future, and strengthen the EU’s geopolitical role.  

Over the  next  seven  years, unprecedented  amounts of  funding  will  be  channelled  through  the  EU budget  to 
address  these  challenges.  Together  with  NextGenerationEU  –  the  EUR 750 billion  recovery  instrument  –  the 
2021-2027  MFF  amounts  to  more  than  EUR 1.8 trillion.  This  is  close  to  double  the  size  of  the  budget  for 
2014-2020 and is the largest investment package ever financed through the EU budget.  

The  European  Commission  is  fully  committed  to  ensuring  that  the  2021-2027  MFF  is  implemented  in  full 
accordance with the  highest  standards of financial management, is as effective as possible in achieving its 
key objectives, and delivers value for all EU citizens. In other words, the Commission will put performance of 
the  EU  budget  front  and  centre.  For  that,  a  sound  performance  framework  is  crucial.  This  framework 
comprises  all  the  tools  and  procedures  necessary  to  set  objectives  and  measure  and  monitor  progress 
towards them. It covers all EU programmes, including those financed from NextGenerationEU.  

The  performance  framework  of  the  EU  budget  builds  on  solid  foundations:  the  OECD  concluded  that  the 
system  of  performance  budgeting  under  the  2014-2020  MFF1  was  best  in  class  among  OECD  countries. 
However,  as  the  EU  budget  evolves  to  meet  new  needs  in  a  changing  world,  so  do  the  demands  on  its 
performance framework. 

This Communication sets out the main features and functions of the performance framework. It explains how 
the  information  generated  will  help  drive  the  EU’s  political  goals,  improve  the  capacity  to  react  flexibly  to 
unforeseen urgencies, ensure accountability, and allow the EU to communicate effectively with stakeholders 
and citizens about the EU budget and how it adds value to the lives of EU citizens.  

The  Commission  cannot  implement  a  modern  and  strong  performance  framework  alone.  Boosting  the 
effectiveness and transparency of EU programmes requires a coordinated effort, and the Commission warmly 
welcomes  the  increasing  emphasis  placed  on  performance  by  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the 
European  Court  of  Auditors  and  the  Member  States.  By  working  together,  we  will  help  ensure  that  this  EU 
budget of unprecedented size and ambition delivers its full potential.  

1  https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/budgeting-and-performance-in-the-eu-oecd-review.pdf 

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Putting performance at the heart of budget implementation 

An important part of budget implementation is making sure that money is spent in full  compliance with all 
applicable rules. The EU budget is subject to strong safeguards against fraud, conflicts of interest and double 
funding.  These  controls  have  been  strengthened  under  the  2021-2027  MFF.  The  Commission  is  fully 
committed to the highest standards of financial management, which includes robust action to correct errors 
when they occur and zero tolerance towards fraud, conflicts of interest and other serious irregularities. This is 
the basis for trust in the EU budget. 

At the same time, it is vitally important that money spent actually addresses the challenges and delivers the 
expected  results  on  the  ground.  How  this  is  achieved  varies  across  the  different  spending  programmes, 
depending  on  their  particular  objectives  and  how  the  money  is  spent  (see  examples  in  Box  1).  But  bringing 
about tangible results and positive change in the lives of citizens and other beneficiaries is, and will remain, a 
key priority for the Commission in all the interventions supported by the EU budget. Presenting this in an open 
and transparent way is a crucial feature of the Commission’s accountability. 

Box 1 – Performance at the heart of policy implementation 

The  EU  budget  already  places  performance  at  the  forefront  of  its  activities  and  its  approach  continues  to 
evolve in the 2021-2027 period.  

One example is the Recovery and Resilience Facility – by far the largest programme in the 2021-2027 period. 
The  Recovery  and  Resilience  Facility  is  performance-driven  by  design,  as  payments  are  explicitly  linked  to 
Member  States’  fulfilment  of  milestones  and  targets  linked  to  investments  and  reforms  in  the  national 
recovery and resilience plans financed through the Facility.  

Already in 2014-2020, cohesion policy contained a performance  reserve that was allocated in 2019 on the 
basis of  a  performance  review.  For  2021-2027,  that  performance  link  has been  further developed.  Initially, 
only  the  years  2021-2025  will  be  programmed  in  full.  Allocations  for  half  of  the  commitments  for  the 
last 2 years  will  be  made  on  the  basis  of  a  mid-term  review.  The  review  will  assess  the  priorities  and 
objectives of the programmes and the progress made by the end of 2024, taking account of changes in the 
socio-economic situation and new challenges identified in country-specific recommendations in 2024, lessons 
learnt and other factors.  

A modern performance framework for a modern EU budget 

The  Commission  bases  its  interventions,  whether  legislative  proposals  or  spending  programmes,  on  solid 
evidence  and  a  precise  description  of  what  the  intervention  is  intended  to  deliver,  and  how.  In  its  recent 
Communication on Better Regulation2, the Commission has further strengthened this system with important 
new features, for example in relation to consultation of stakeholders, efforts to simplify and reduce burdens, 
mainstreaming  sustainability into the better regulation policy and integrating  strategic foresight into  policy-
making. 

A modern  performance framework for the EU budget has to be based on: a) clarity and transparency about 
the  way  programmes  are  designed  to  address  the  identified  challenges  through  their  objectives;  and  b)  a 
meaningful and robust system to allow progress towards the objectives to be measured  – and action taken 
where needed.  

Clear objectives 

Once  a  challenge  has  been  identified  and  it  is  clear  that  the  challenge  is  best  addressed  at  EU level,  clear 
objectives  need  to  be  set.  The  spending  programme  will  finance  interventions  that  help  to  achieve  these 
objectives and address the underlying challenges. Well-defined objectives are therefore key both to the design 

2  Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social 

Committee and the Committee of the Regions Better regulation: Joining forces to make better laws 

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of  the  spending  programmes  and to  measuring  their performance.  Given  their central  role, these  objectives 
are enshrined in the relevant legal acts for each EU spending programme.  

The  accompanying  Programme  and  Performance  fiches  set  out  the  key  features  of  each  EU  spending 
programme under the 2021-2027 MFF, namely the challenges to address and why an intervention at EU level 
can add value, the programme’s objectives, and the types of interventions it will finance to help achieve these 
objectives. 

Meaningful indicators 

A  system  to  measure  progress  towards  the  objectives  requires  meaningful  performance  indicators  that 
monitor how the spending programmes are progressing, how the spending is delivering results, and how these 
results  bring  the  programmes  closer  to  their  stated  objectives.  A  balanced  set  of  indicators  will  cover  the 
short-term  outputs,  the  medium-term  results  and  the  longer-term  impacts  of  the  programme  to  provide 
information  on  progress  made  throughout  the  programme’s  lifetime.  The  number  of  indicators  should  be 
limited and focus strongly on the key aspects of performance. Data need to be available for these indicators 
on a regular basis and must be of sufficient quality and reliability; given limited resources, the collection of 
such data should also be cost-efficient.  

The Commission has made a major effort to identify a high-quality set of indicators for the new programmes. 
The overall number of indicators has been reduced from over 1 100 in the 2014-2020 period to around 700 
for  2021-2027.  The  indicators  have  been  carefully  selected  to  provide  a  representative  indication  of 
performance on an annual basis throughout the cycle (see example in  Box 2) and have been included in the 
basic legal texts for each programme. The Commission has worked closely with the European Parliament and 
the Council to make sure that these improvements were reflected in the final programmes that were adopted.  

Box 2 – Example of indicators to monitor the progress throughout the programme life cycle  

Horizon Europe (Programme for Research and Innovation) 

Specific  objective:  Achieve  scientific  impact  by  creating  high-quality  new  knowledge,  strengthening  human 
capital in research and innovation, and fostering diffusion of knowledge and Open Science. 

Measuring output resulting from the financed actions: Number of peer-reviewed scientific publications. 

Measuring mid-term results: Field-Weighted Citation Index of Horizon Europe peer-reviewed publications. 

Measuring longer-term impacts: Number of peer-reviewed publications that are core contributions to scientific 
fields. 

To  make  sure  the  indicators  provide  data  that  are  reliable,  trustworthy  and  comparable,  the  Commission  is 
also clarifying, for each indicator, the source of information, what exactly the indicator measures, and when 
data  will  be  available,  together  with  other  supplementary  information.  This  way,  all  interested  parties  will 
have at their disposal all the necessary information to check the robustness of the results. The Programme 
and  Performance  fiches  present  the  indicators  together  with  a  selection  of  this  information  for  each 
programme. 

The indicators set out in the legal bases will, in most cases, be complemented with a more comprehensive set 
of indicators as part of the monitoring and evaluation framework for each programme. This reflects the 
importance of robust data measuring the impacts of EU spending programmes, which the recent Commission 
Communication  on  Better  Regulation  highlighted  again.  These  indicators  will  allow  for  deeper  analysis  of 
performance in the interim and ex post evaluations of the programmes, the results of which are an essential 
input to the design of future programmes. 

Ambitious targets 

The Commission considers that it is important to set ambitious but realistic targets for the indicators, as well 
as intermediate milestones where appropriate. Such targets are crucial to demonstrate the value that the EU 
budget brings and to enhance transparency and accountability, while taking account of all the factors that can 
affect  the  pace  of  programme  implementation.  The  process  of  setting  targets  must  include  partners, 
particularly Member States, in cases where the Commission relies on their cooperation for implementation. 

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The  last  part  of  the  Programme  and  Performance  fiches  explains  the  methodology  that  the  Commission  is 
planning to use to set or update baselines and targets for each indicator. The Commission will communicate 
values of the baselines, milestones and targets in the programme statements accompanying the 2023 draft 
budget.  

Towards state-of-the-art performance reporting  

The  Commission  has  invested  heavily  in  its  performance  reporting.  This  reflects  the  importance  the 
Commission  attaches  to  presenting  coherent  and  user-friendly  information  about  performance  to  the 
budgetary and discharge authorities, as well as to all other interested stakeholders, as part of the culture of 
transparency  and  accountability  that  the  Commission  has  built  around  the  EU  budget.  The  Commission’s 
reports on the EU budget bring together and assess both qualitative information and quantitative data on the 
amounts  spent  and  results  achieved.  They  draw  on  all  available  information  from  the  regular  annual 
monitoring of the programmes and, when available, the findings of in-depth evaluations.  Box 3  provides an 
overview of the main EU budget performance reports.  

The  Commission’s  flagship  report  on  the  performance  of  the  EU  budget  is  the  Annual  Management  and 
Performance  Report.  This  summary  report  provides  the  most  important  facts  and  figures  relating  to 
performance  and  the  Commission’s  management  of  the  EU budget3.  The  report  is  sent  to  the  European 
Parliament, the Council and the European Court of Auditors in the context of the annual discharge procedure, 
through which the implementation of the previous year’s EU budget is scrutinised.  

Further detail on the performance of EU programmes is provided in an Annex to the report, the  Programme 
Performance  Overview.  It  contains  short  fiches  on  each  spending  programme  that  summarise  the  key 
implementation  and  performance  information.  This  is  a  recent  innovation  and  has  been  welcomed  by  the 
European Parliament, the Council and the European Court of Auditors4.  

Box 3 – Main annual reports on the performance of the EU budget 

These  reports  draw  on  information  contained  in  the  detailed  Programme  Statements  accompanying  the 
draft budget each year. The Programme Statements present comprehensive data that include and go beyond 
the  reporting  required  in  the  legal  acts  and  provide  valuable  information  to  support  budgetary  decision-
making.  

The  added  value  of  these  reports  is  not  only  to  present  data,  but  also  to  analyse  what  these  data  tell  us, 
making  use  of  all  available  information.  In  recent  years,  the  Commission  has  included  a  dedicated 
performance  assessment  section  in  both  the  Programme  Performance  Overview  and  Programme 

3  Article 247 of the 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 

4  European Court of Auditors: Report on the performance of the EU budget – Status at the end of 2019, adopted on 
19  November  2020,  section  1.40:  Most  recently,  the  PPO,  which  contains  a  selection  of  indicators  from  the 
programme statements, has become an annex to the AMPR. This has made EU budget performance reporting more 
coherent.  

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Statements, providing essential context and a balanced assessment of what the available information reveals 
about programme performance and implementation. 

These assessments can only be as reliable as the data that underpin them, which is why the Commission puts 
strong emphasis on data quality and reliability. Here, the Commission relies crucially on information provided 
by  Member  States  and  other  implementing  partners  or  organisations.  Their  cooperation  will  be  essential  to 
further progress.  

The Commission is also working to improve data quality management and to mitigate risks by developing a 
robust data  quality control framework and  upgrading its  systems  for storing and sharing performance data 
both within the Commission and with external stakeholders. Here, the Commission can draw on a number of 
existing platforms and projects (see Box 4).  

All this work will be essential to further improve the information offered and its presentation and accessibility 
on the Commission’s website to everyone interested5. 

Box 4 – Example of performance data sharing: Cohesion Open Data Platform 

The Commission already provides high-quality information on the implementation of the EU budget through a 
number  of  outlets.  An  important  example  is  the  main  website  for  the  cohesion  policy  funds,  the  Cohesion 
Open  Data  Platform.  This  provides  comprehensive  data  and  user-friendly  visualisations  on  investment 
financing and achievements under the European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020, and there are 
plans to extend coverage to the 2021-2027 programmes. The platform received the first-ever Ombudsman 
award for excellence in open public administration. 

Using the EU budget to drive crosscutting policy objectives 

The EU budget is more than the sum of its parts. Every spending programme has its own set of objectives and 
tools, designed to tackle a particular set of challenges. The dedicated programme EU4Health, newly created to 
address  specific  challenges  related  to  health,  is  a  case  in  point.  However,  the  EU  budget  is  at  its  most 
powerful  when  programmes  work  together  to  unlock  synergies  and  promote,  in  a  coherent  way,  the  EU’s 
overarching political priorities.  

The  EU’s  objective  to  become  climate  neutral  by  2050,  for  example,  will  require  the  use  of  all  available 
means,  legislative  as well  as  financial, cutting  across  many  different  policy  areas  and programmes.  The  EU 
budget  remains  relatively  small  compared  to  the  overall  investment  needs,  but  by  mobilising  all  relevant 
programmes and acting as a catalyst for other public and private sector investment, it can help achieve the 
EU’s  ambitions.  Similarly,  by  emphasising  in  its  annual  reporting  the  progress  achieved  through  EU 
programmes  on  the  United  Nations’  Sustainable  Development  Goals,  the  Commission  underscores  the  EU’s 
commitment to playing a key role globally in supporting their achievement. 

The  new  performance  framework  will  progressively  integrate  crosscutting  policy  objectives  into  the  design 
and implementation of the EU budget. For each of its  spending programmes, therefore, the EU  will address 
objectives  specific  to  the  programme  alongside  these  crosscutting  policy  objectives.  This  is  policy 
mainstreaming:  including  crosscutting  policy  goals  in  all  phases  of  the  policy  cycle  of  the  relevant 
programmes – design, preparation, implementation and evaluation.  Box  5 covers the main themes of  policy 
mainstreaming for the 2021-2027 period as agreed in the inter-institutional agreement. 

Box 5 – EU commitments on crosscutting policies 

Under the inter-institutional agreement accompanying the 2021-2027 MFF, the European Parliament, the 
Council and the Commission have committed to a number of important steps towards integrating crosscutting 
objectives into the EU budget.  

A  key  commitment  is  to  spend  at  least  30%  of  all  resources  available  under  the  2021-2027  MFF  and 
NextGenerationEU  on  addressing  the  climate  challenge,  up  from  20%  in  the  previous  period.  In  total,  this 
amounts  to  a  historic  investment  package  of  more  than  EUR 600 billion.  This  ambitious  commitment  is 

5  https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/eu-budget/performance-and-reporting/programmes-performance_en 

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essential to drive the EU’s climate efforts and leverage other sources of financing.  

In addition, the institutions have taken important commitments in relation to: 

Biodiversity: an ambition to support biodiversity objectives with 7.5% of annual spending in 2024 and 10% in 
2026 and 2027, on the basis of an effective, transparent and comprehensive methodology;  

Gender  equality:  the  development  of  a  new  methodology  to  measure  the  expenditure  in  programmes  on 
equality between women and men and the mainstreaming of those objectives for pilot use as of 2023; 

Sustainable  Development  Goals:  annual  reporting  on  the  implementation  of  the  United  Nations  Sustainable 
Development Goals in all relevant programmes. 

Effective and credible policy mainstreaming requires a robust system to measure the contributions made by 
different EU spending programmes to a given overarching policy priority: this is known as  tracking. Tracking 
requires  a  detailed  understanding  of  how  specific  actions  contribute  to  a  given  policy  priority; these  actions 
need to be identified in a way that allows the related financial resources to be counted, or tracked, and then 
aggregated at the level of the entire EU budget to monitor progress. 

The Commission has implemented tracking methodologies for climate and biodiversity under the 2014-2020 
MFF. These methodologies were based mainly on the intent of the financed action – i.e. whether the actions 
were designed to help achieve the overarching objective or were only expected to make a significantly positive 
contribution.  The  Commission  is now  further developing  its  tracking  methodologies to  take  into  account  not 
just intent but also expected effects of the actions, which is what will ultimately make the difference (see Box 
6). 

Box 6 - From OECD Rio markers to EU coefficients 

OECD Rio Markers 

EU coefficients 

Based on the stated objective 

Based on the expected effects 

Projects can be marked differently 
depending on the stated objective  
of why a project is financed 

A given type of project will always have 
the same coefficient, regardless  
of why it is financed 

No link with the EU overarching policy 
framework 

Link with the relevant EU overarching 
policy framework (e.g. European Green 
Deal) 

The OECD Rio marker system assigns a marker to each project depending on whether that project is financed 
because of climate considerations – principal relevance / 100% – whether it is financed for other reasons but 
makes  a  significant,  positive  contribution  –  significant  relevance  /  40%  –  or  not  –  no  relevance  /  0%.  That 
system is simple to use with low administrative cost, given that projects are categorised based on why they 
are financed without requiring a deeper understanding of their effects. 

Given the risk that the same action would be categorised differently depending on why it was financed6, the 
Commission  started  moving  already  in  the  2014-2020  MFF  towards  a  system  of  classification  by  type  of 
action. For the 2021 – 2027 MFF, the European Commission is further developing that tracking system to use 
EU  climate  coefficients.  These  retain  the  three-tier  system  from  the  OECD  Rio  markers  but  further 
reinforce a classification of types of action by their expected effects on climate that is consistent across the 
EU budget.  

An important first step was taken in the climate tracking  methodology  for the new Recovery and Resilience 

6  A  building  renovation  project,  for  example,  would  be  classified  differently  if  done  to  address  energy  efficiency 

concerns or to increase living surface, even if the effect on energy consumption was the same. 

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Facility where substantive conditions have been included in the categories to reflect considerations of effect 
to the extent possible. The Commission is working on extending this system across the EU budget, reflecting 
new  policy  developments,  in  particular  the  European  Green  Deal  and  the  new  “Taxonomy  of  Sustainable 
Finance”7.  

Reaching  the  overall  target  for  climate  spending  or  the  ambition  level  set  for  biodiversity  will  require  all 
contributing  programmes  to  do  their  part.  This  means  that  the  overall  target  must  be  translated  into 
objectives  and  targets  at  the  level  of  individual  spending  programmes.  Where  spending  programmes  are 
implemented  jointly  by  the  Commission  and  the  Member  States,  national  and  regional  authorities  need  to 
work together with the Commission to assign relevant targets to the respective programmes at national and 
regional level.  

For  multiannual  spending  targets,  such  as  for  climate,  there  also  need  to  be  appropriate  adjustment 
mechanisms to ensure that any shortfalls in earlier years can be made up through changes in programming 
in later years. Here, all institutions – the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission – need to work 
closely  with  all  budget  implementation  partners,  particularly  the  Member  States,  to  ensure  that  the  EU  can 
live up to the targets. 

Next to the green transition, the digital transition is critically  important, as also highlighted by the COVID-19 
crisis.  At  least  20%  of  expenditure  under  the  Recovery  and  Resilience  Facility  will  support  investments  and 
reforms  in  the  field  of  digital  transformation.  Also  through  the  MFF,  many  programmes  such  as  Horizon 
Europe,  the  structural  funds,  and  InvestEU  will  include  significant  funding  for  the  digital  transition.  The 
Commission is committed to further integrating the digital dimension into the performance framework.  

Of  course,  tracking  expenditure  is  only  the  start.  What  ultimately  counts  is  whether  this  expenditure  is 
effective at achieving policy goals, be they fighting climate change, advancing the digital transformation, or 
promoting  gender  equality.  Here,  the  effects  of  various  different  programmes  need  to  be  assembled  and 
aggregated.  The  Commission  is  developing  suitable  methodologies  for  this  purpose.  This  work  will  provide 
crucial  information  about  how  to  identify  and  harness  synergies  in  the  budget  and  integrate  horizontal 
priorities most effectively in future budgetary cycles.  

Using  performance  information  for  decision-making  and 
policy design 

A  modern  performance  framework  will  generate  high-quality  performance  information,  providing  a  clearer 
picture  than  ever  before  of  what  the  EU  budget  is  achieving.  It  will  deepen  the  understanding  of  what  is 
working  well  and  where  improvements  might  be  needed  depending  on  early  warning  signals  of  potential 
challenges  in  the  performance  of  individual  programmes  and  in  the  contribution  to  crosscutting  policies.  In 
other  words,  it  will  provide  a  powerful  management  tool,  allowing  the  Commission  to  better  diagnose 
problems and take the necessary corrective steps, where required, in a timely manner. 

Performance information can also help to inform decision-making on the budget. The EU budget is by design 
an investment budget, in which predictability of financing streams over time is crucial. This also means that 
the  performance  of  funding  programmes  can  only  be  measured  and  understood  comprehensively  over  the 
medium to long term. Nonetheless, annual monitoring further increases the capacity of the Commission and 
of the budgetary authority to react flexibly and quickly to unforeseen urgencies and evolving priorities, and to 
assess and justify shorter-term changes in how resources are allocated. 

In  the  longer  run,  comprehensive  performance  information  will  play  a  vital  role  in  the  design  of  future 
programmes. Evaluations will assess how well programmes have achieved their objectives, how relevant they 
are in adding value to EU citizens’ lives, and how coherent they have been with the broader policy objectives. 
They  will  provide  a  comprehensive  analysis  of  results  and  impacts,  allowing  lessons  to  be  drawn  on  the 
strengths and  weaknesses  of  the  programmes.  This will  provide  important  insights  for  the  design  of  future 
spending programmes.  

7  Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2020 on the establishment 

of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment; EU taxonomy Climate Delegated Act 

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Implementing a harmonised performance framework will mean that this analysis is not limited to individual 
programmes. Rather, the Commission’s ambition is to integrate performance information from across the EU 
budget to build a comprehensive overview of its performance as a whole. The Commission will work towards 
integrating  this  overview  with  a  better  understanding  of  the  interaction  and  synergies  between  spending 
programmes,  of  the  pros  and  cons  of  different  modes  and  tools  of  budgetary  implementation,  and  of  how 
EU programmes can contribute most effectively to crosscutting policy goals. 

Conclusion  

The  EU  budget  is  evolving  in  a  rapidly  changing  world.  The  largest  package  ever  financed  through  the  EU 
budget will help the EU to recover from the immediate economic and social damage done by the coronavirus 
pandemic, kick-start the recovery and prepare for a better future.  

It  is  a  unique  opportunity  to  ensure  that  this  historic  package  delivers  results  on  the  ground.  This  is  the 
essence  and  core  of  a  modern  performance  framework  for  a  modern  EU budget.  Success  will  require  the 
shared commitment of all involved in designing and implementing the budget: the EU institutions, but also the 
Member States, as well as all other European and international partners involved in budget implementation. 

We have already made significant progress in strengthening the performance framework for the EU budget, 
and the new spending programmes mark a watershed in its development. Now, it is time to take this ambition 
forward  together.  European  Parliament,  Council  and  Commission  should  use  the  available  information  to 
make  better  budgetary  decisions.  Member  States  and  the  Commission  should  jointly  translate  crosscutting 
spending  targets  into  operational  targets  in  individual  programmes.  Member  States  and  the  Commission 
should work together on data quality and timeliness. The EU should communicate clearly and proudly what its 
policies  and  programmes  are  delivering  for  all  Europeans.  It  should  remain  transparent  about  challenges 
faced, and be ready to take appropriate action where required.  

All  this work, ultimately, is undertaken  for  the  benefit  of  our citizens.  We  must  be  able  to  demonstrate  not 
only that the EU budget is managed responsibly, but that it is delivering for all. This is why the new EU budget 
has  been  designed  with  performance  at  its  core.  It  is  now  time  to  put  this  new  budget  –  and  this  new 
performance framework – into action. To show that the EU provides value for money and is worthy of citizens’ 
trust. 

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