Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 609/2014 on the methods and procedure for making available the traditional, VAT and GNI-based own resources and on the measures to meet cash requirements

The Council and the Commission agreed on a joint declaration attached to the Council minutes of 26 May 2014 when the own resources legislative package, consisting of Decision 335/2014 on the system of Union’s own resources (the Own Resources Decision), Regulation No 608/2014 laying down implementing measures and Regulation No 609/2014 on the methods and procedure for making available the traditional, VAT and GNI-based own resources and on the measures to meet cash requirements, was adopted.

The Own Resources Decision is the key legal instrument laying down the main elements of the system, such as the list of own resources and the ceilings for commitment and payment appropriations (hence the size of the Union’s budget). The implementing measures for the own resources system stem from two Articles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU):
– The newly introduced Regulation No 608/2014 laying down implementing measures is based on Article 311(4) TFEU (introduced by the Lisbon Treaty) and currently contains rules on calculation and budgeting of the annual balance, and on control and supervision measures.
– Regulation No 609/2014, which is a recast of Regulation 1150/2000, is based on Article 322(2) TFEU and deals with the rules on making own resources available and the measures to meet cash requirements. It contains practical arrangements in respect of the establishment of traditional own resources, conservation of supporting documents, administrative cooperation, the applicable rate for the GNI-based own resource, accounts to be kept for own resources, the timing for making them available and for making adjustments and provisions concerning cash management and irrecoverable amounts.

Both Regulations will enter into force on the same day as Decision 335/2014 after this Decision has been approved by all Member States in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements. The package will apply retroactively from 1 January 2014.

In the above-mentioned joint declaration of 26 May 2014, the Commission committed to submit a proposal for Article 12 of Regulation 609/2014 in order to allow a revision of the procedure for calculating the interest on amounts made available belatedly. The declaration further indicates that the rate(s) of interest shall respect the principle of proportionality while ensuring a smooth functioning of the system to meet the cash requirements.

Apart from the interest rules, this proposal based on Article 322(2) TFEU also addresses the procedure for the annual adjustment of the VAT and GNI-based own resources as the most recent amendment introduced in the context of the unprecedented size of the adjustments in 2014 will no longer apply after the entry into force of Regulation No 609/2014.

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)447: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:447:FIN

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