Legal provisions of COM(2022)184 - Amendment of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union

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dossier COM(2022)184 - Amendment of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union.
document COM(2022)184 EN
date April 22, 2022

Contents

Article 1

Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 is amended as follows:

(1) Article 48 is amended as follows:

(a)paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

‘1. The budget shall not contain negative revenue.’;

(b)the following paragraph 1a is inserted:

‘1a. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the following shall be deducted from the revenue of the budget:

(a) negative remuneration of deposits in total;

(b) where the amounts of the fines, other penalties or sanctions under the TFEU or the Euratom Treaty referred to in Article 108(1) are cancelled or reduced by the Court of Justice of the European Union, any interest or other charge due to the parties concerned, including any negative return related to those amounts.’.

(2) in Article 99(4), the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘In the case of fines, other penalties or sanctions, the interest rate for amounts receivable not paid or covered by a financial guarantee acceptable to the accounting officer of the Commission within the deadline set in the decision of the Union institution imposing a fine, other penalty or sanction shall be the rate applied by the European Central Bank to its principal refinancing operations, as published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union, in force on the first calendar day of the month in which the decision imposing a fine, other penalty or sanction has been adopted, increased by three and a half percentage points.’;

(3) in Article 107(2), the following second subparagraph is inserted:

‘For the purposes of applying Article 48(1a), point (b), the necessary amounts referred to in paragraph 1 may be entered in the budget by the end of the following financial year.’;

(4) Article 108 is amended as follows:

(a)paragraphs 1 and 2 are replaced by the following:

‘1.    Where an action is brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union against a decision of a Union institution imposing a fine, other penalty or sanction under the TFEU or the Euratom Treaty and until such time as all legal remedies have been exhausted, the debtor shall either provisionally pay the amounts concerned on the bank account designated by the accounting officer of the Commission or lodge a financial guarantee acceptable to the accounting officer of the Commission. The guarantee shall be independent of the obligation to pay a fine, other penalty or sanction and shall be enforceable on demand. It shall cover the claim as to principal and interest that the debtor shall pay in the case referred to in point (b) of paragraph 3 at the rate applied by the European Central Bank to its principal refinancing operations, as published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union, in force on the first calendar day of the month in which the decision imposing a fine, other penalty or sanction has been adopted, increased by one and a half percentage points, as from the deadline set in the decision of the Union institution imposing a fine, other penalty or sanction.;

2. The Commission may invest the provisionally collected amounts in financial assets, prioritising the aim of security and liquidity of the monies in accordance with the principle of sound financial management.’;

(b)paragraph 4 is amended as follows:

(i) the first subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘4. After all legal remedies have been exhausted and where the fine, other penalty or sanction has been cancelled or the amount has been reduced, one of the following measures shall be taken:

(a)    the provisionally collected amounts or, in the event of a reduction, the relevant part thereof shall be repaid to the third party concerned;

(b)    where a financial guarantee has been lodged, it shall be released accordingly.

The amount or the relevant part thereof referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph shall be increased by interest at the rate applied by the European Central Bank to its principal refinancing operations, as published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union in force on the first calendar day of the month in which the decision imposing a fine, other penalty or sanction was adopted, increased by one and a half percentage points.’

   (ii) the second subparagraph is deleted.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.