budgetary implementation

2 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2007-2013 PERIOD
2.1 COMMITMENTS FOR THE 2007-2013 PERIOD
2.1.1 The 2007-13 allocation for cohesion policy
The allocation for cohesion policy (Heading 1b of the financial framework) for the 2007-2013
period was first decided at the European Council of December 2005, where it was fixed at
EUR 307 619 million in 2004 prices.
This allocation was then slightly adjusted in the first months of 2006 to arrive at a value of
EUR 308 041 million in 2004 prices as laid down in the Inter-institutional Agreement (IIA) of
May 2006 (cf. OJ n° C 139 of 14/06/2006). In current prices, this initial allocation amounted
to EUR 347 410 million. 2004 prices were transformed into current prices with a fixed
deflator of 2% per annum (as foreseen by point 16 of the IIA). Thus, the overall amount in
current prices was reached by adding up the current prices for the different years.
The original annual breakdown was slightly revised in 2008 in order to transfer the
commitment appropriations that could not be used in 2007 due to delays in programming to
later years of the programming period, as foreseen in point 48 of the IIA.
99.75% of the total original allocation, i.e. EUR 346 542 million, was made available for the
financing of multi-annual operational programmes whereas the remaining 0.25%, i.e. EUR
868 million, was reserved for technical assistance, which is decided annually.
In 2010, the implementation of point 17 of the IIA resulted in a total additional allocation for
2011-2013 of EUR 1 007 million for Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 3 Following
this adjustment the total Heading 1B 2007-2013 allocation in current prices reached EUR 348
417 million (including technical assistance).
This total allocation for cohesion policy is broken down into three objectives: Convergence,
Regional Competitiveness and Employment and European Territorial Cooperation. Of the
updated overall amount of EUR 347.5 billion (i.e. excluding technical assistance), EUR 283.8
billion (81.7%) is dedicated to Convergence, EUR 55.0 billion (15.8%) to Regional
Competitiveness and Employment and EUR 8.7 billion (2.5%) to European Territorial
Cooperation.
An updated annual breakdown of the 2007-2013 Heading 1B allocations by Member State
can be found in Annex 6.
2.1.2 Implementation of commitments in 2012
The commitment appropriations available for the Structural and Cohesion Funds in 2012
totalled EUR 52 593 million (including EUR 1.77 million of appropriations carried over from
2011), i.e. 35% of the overall EU budget which means they remain in the range between 34%
and 36% observed since 2007. This amount corresponds to the evolution foreseen by the
3 The corresponding technical adjustment of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework was adopted by the
Commission in April 2010, see COM(2010)160 of 16 April 2010.
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