Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/538 of 17 April 2020

What it is

to amend Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act. BACKGROUND: the COVID-19 outbreak and the associated public health crisis, which require extraordinary measures to be taken, has put great pressure on the available financial resources within and outside the MFF ceilings. In order to help Member States meet all these challenges and respond to the impact of the outbreak, the Commission proposed a wide range of measures in the Covid-19 Response Investment Initiative . It also proposed to reinforce the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism/rescEU to coordinate joint procurement and increase the stock of medicines, personal protective equipment and medical products, to repatriate European citizens stranded outside the EU. BACKGROUND: the COVID-19 outbreak and the associated public health and economic crisis, which require extraordinary measures to be taken, have put great pressure on the available financial resources within and outside the multiannual financial framework (MFF) ceilings. This draft Regulation is directly linked to financing included in amending budget No 2 to the general budget of the Union for 2020 in the framework of which the Global Margin for Commitments is mobilised to finance measures in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. It should also be noted that in order to provide urgent financing, it was considered appropriate to provide for a derogation from the eight-week period referred to in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 on the role of national parliaments in the European Union. This period refers to elapse of time between a draft legislative act being made available to national Parliaments and the date when it is placed on a provisional agenda for the Council for its adoption or for adoption of a position under a legislative procedure. CONTENT: the Council proposes that Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 (MFF Regulation) should therefore be amended to stipulate that the commitment appropriations may be entered in the budget over and above the ceilings of the relevant headings laid down in the MFF where it is necessary to use the resources from the Emergency Aid Reserve, the European Union Solidarity Fund, the Flexibility Instrument, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, the Contingency Margin, the specific flexibility to tackle youth unemployment and strengthen research and the Global Margin for Commitments. Margins left available below the MFF ceilings for commitment appropriations shall constitute a Global Margin for Commitments, to be made available over and above the ceilings established in the MFF for the years 2016 to 2020.

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