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Payments
"The winding down of a pile of unpaid bills has been Parliament’s quintessential goal. We cannot go on rolling invoices over from year to year due to a lack of resources, just watching as cash-strapped contractors suffer and the EU loses its credibility as a reliable partner", said Budgets Committee Chair Jean Arthuis (ALDE, FR), who led the parliamentary delegation. "We know member states' difficulties, but it was the member states themselves which agreed to enter into contracts that need to be paid. The bills of the EU are also part of their debt", he added.
The total amount of pending claims rose from €5 billion in 2010 to €23.4 billion at the start of this year, and without the top-up that Parliament fought for, it would rise further, threatening an eventual collapse of the budget.
A plan to wind down the pile of unpaid claims
"The Commission, based on member states’ estimations, asked for €4.8 billion, and we supported this request", said Gérard Deprez (ALDE, BE) who led talks on the budget top-up for 2014. "But we have to know how the Commission wants to wind down the backlog by 2016", he added.
Parliament’s negotiators agreed to the 2015 budget on condition that the Commission presents a plan to reduce the amount of the unpaid bills to a sustainable level by 2016.