The European Commission confirmed that an extra €11.2 billion is required for the EU budget to reimburse beneficiaries of EU funded programmes completed across Europe in 2012 as well as to honour the Cohesion Policy claims that will fall due in 2013. The MEP chairing the Budget Committee in the European Parliament, Alain Lamassoure, stressed that the Commission proposal to settle only part of the EU's €16.2 billion debt rolled over from 2012 threatens the EU with insolvency later in 2013.

The European Commission presented the bulk of the draft amending budget which states that an extra €11.2 billion is required for the EU budget to reimburse beneficiaries of EU funded programmes completed across Europe in 2012 as well as to honour the Cohesion Policy claims that will fall due in 2013. If agreed in full by the Parliament and Council, this draft amending budget will allow all the legal obligations left pending at the end of 2012, as well as those arising before the end of 2013, to be covered in this year's budget. The agreement on 2013 EU budget was approved by the Council in December 2012.

European Commissioner for Financial Planning and Budget Janusz Lewandowski underlined that this cannot come as a surprise. According to him, in recent years, voted EU budget have been increasingly below the real needs based on estimates from Member States; this is creating a snowballing effect of unpaid claims transferred onto the following year. He also show himself confident that the Council and the Parliament will deliver on their commitments to avoid any shortfall in payments and take a swift decision on this proposal.

In the light of this announcement, Alain Lamassoure, MEP chair in Budgets Committee, stressed that the amending budget is insufficient to pay the bills, the €5 billion shortfall will have to be paid from the 2013 budget, which was not calculated to cover rolled-over bills. The Commission highlighted that the draft amending budget covers claims from beneficiaries of EU funds (Member States, regions and towns, universities and scientists, NGOs…) for projects completed across Europe; it also includes Member States’ estimates for payments they will expect from the EU this year.