Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on borrowing and lending activities of the European Union in 2012

The Commission is required to inform every year the European Parliament and the Council on the use of the various lending instruments of the European Union. In order to meet these information requirements, this report describes the lending operations for each instrument as well as the respective borrowing activities.

Lending activities: Financial support for third countries and Member States in the form of bilateral loans financed from the capital markets with the guarantee of the EU budget is provided by the Commission under various legal acts of the Council or of the Council and the European Parliament, depending on the objectives pursued. The consistency of financial support to third countries with the overall objectives of the EU external action is ensured by the Commission and the High Representative, assisted by the EEAS.

Borrowing activities: In order to finance the lending activities decided by the Council, the Commission is empowered to borrow funds on the capital markets on behalf of both the European Union and Euratom. Borrowing and lending is conducted as back to back operations, which ensures that the EU budget does not take any interest rate or foreign exchange risk. Outstanding borrowings are matched by outstanding loans.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)752: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:752:FIN

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