The draft budget for 2013 presented by the European Commission freezes expenditure because the increase of commitments is at the level of inflation, cuts its staff by 1%, and it proposes a 6.8% increase in the level of payments aimed at, according to the Commission, contributing directly to growth and jobs in Europe. However, this proposal does not take into account the costs of Croatia joining the EU in July 2013.

The European Commission published the draft budget for 2013 that seeks savings and cost-efficiency, cutting budget lines for programmes that do not show tangible effectiveness. Also, it increases payments in €62,5 billion to job friendly growth in Europe. Overall the draft budget for 2013 amounts to €150,9 billion in commitments, a 2% increase on last year, in line with the current inflation rate. Payments represent €137,9 billion which amounts to an increase of 6,8%. According to the Commission, they are the logical consequence of past commitments. In March 2012, the European Parliament which is in charge with the Council to approve the budget, expressed its concern about this reduction in 2013 budget.

With regard to the increase of the payments, the Commission considers as a priority to invest in the following programmes: the Research framework Programmes (€9,0 billion, 28,1% increase on 2012), the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (€546,4 million, 47,8% increase), the structural and cohesion funds (€49 billion, 11,7% increase), and life long learning (€1,2 billion, 15,8% increase).

On the freezing of future expenditure, budget lines for programmes that do not show tangible effectiveness have been cut while pressure was exerted on every EU institution and agency to seek savings wherever possible. Most EU agencies will actually see a real cut in their annual budget. For its part, the Commission also freezes its own budget below inflation level, while cutting its staff by 1%, the first step towards the goal of a 5% reduction of staff in 5 years.