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Euractiv

Commission to rely on old tools for new EU budget challenges

The European Commission will strengthen rarely-used budget tools to make the bloc's next long-term budget more flexible, a draft law obtained by Euractiv suggests. Ahead of the long-term 2028-2034 budget (MFF), due to be unveiled 16 July, the Commission wants to ensure that significantly less than 90% of the EU budget will be committed long-term from day one. The budget will have 'fewer programmes, a higher share of unprogrammed amounts, as well as mechanisms and in-built reserves allowing for a better, faster and less disruptive response to evolving needs,' the draft regulation specifies. The plan will make use of existing instruments, which have not always been popular with EU countries – namely, the 'Single Margin Instrument' and 'Flexibility Instrument'. The former gathers unused funds and allows them to be diverted towards new projects; the latter allows the EU to react in situations that are not covered by existing budget instruments. Previously, the Flexibility Instrument was capped at €915 million (in 2018 prices) per year. The annual fixed amount will be increased to above €1 billion, reads the draft, which can still be changed before publication. Meanwhile, the Single Margin Instrument, which 'pools past unused margins', will allow the funds to be spent 'across all flexibility areas' – for instance, permitting unused industry funds to be diverted towards housing migrants. In previous budgets, the margin tool was capped at 0.04% of gross national income. This could also be changed, the draft suggests. Finally, a third special instrument will be created to allow the EU 'to keep supporting Ukraine as long as it takes' and help the country on its accession path. The special funding tool is linked to the Global Europe Instrument, and it would channel some EU funds to support Kyiv, including non-repayable support. The text did not include the amounts earmarked for each programme, which will be decided at the highest level in Brussels by 16 July. (ow)