Mr. Johan Adriaan Lok:

The European Union budget process has two main elements which need to be considered: the commitment appropriations and the payment appropriations. To put it simply, payment appropriations hurt. They require cash from member states and they lead to payments to member states. Commitment appropriations are important because with them the Commission can say to member states or regions that this is their budget for the next couple of years - three years, mostly. In chapter 1 of the annual report, the Court of Auditors says that member states must be aware that the number of commitment appropriations is on the rise. By definition, they will lead to requests for payment. In the additional information in the slides, there are key dates in the EU budget process. One can see that in the approval process there was an enormous debate between the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council on the 2012 budget. It ended up with the Council winning, so the payments were lowered.

Looking at the 2012 budgetary management, however, in total more than €7 billion in additional payment requests was needed to complete the 2012 budget. So the whole process in 2012 led to a reduction in payments requested, but in the end far more payments were needed. The warning in chapter 1 of the annual report is to look not only at payments but also at commitments, as these will lead to payments in the coming years. Commitments outstanding on 31 December 2012 are about 2.5 times the yearly budget, so the room for manoeuvre becomes smaller as one goes into the new programme period.