The annual ceilings on commitments appropriations by category of expenditure and the annual ceilings on payment appropriations established by this Regulation must respect the ceilings set for commitments and own resources in Council Decision 2007/436/EC,Euratom (1).
(2)
Taking into account the need for an adequate level of predictability for preparing and implementing medium-term investments, the duration of the multiannual financial framework (MFF) should be set at seven years starting on 1 January 2014. A review will take place in 2016 at the latest, following the European Parliament elections. This will allow the institutions, including the European Parliament elected in 2014, to reassess the priorities. The results of this review should be taken into account in any revision of this Regulation for the remaining years of the MFF. This arrangement is hereinafter referred to as 'review/revision'.
(3)
In the context of the mid-term review/revision of the MFF, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission agree to jointly examine the most suitable duration for the subsequent MFF before the Commission presents its proposals with a view to striking the right balance between the duration of the respective terms of office of the members of the European Parliament and the European Commission - and the need for stability for programming cycles and investment predictability.
(4)
Specific and maximum possible flexibility should be implemented to allow the Union to fulfil its obligations in compliance with Article 323 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
(5)
The following special instruments are necessary to allow the Union to react to specified unforeseen circumstances, or to allow the financing of clearly identified expenditure which cannot be financed within the limits of the ceilings available for one or more headings as laid down in the MFF, thereby facilitating the budgetary procedure: the Emergency Aid Reserve, the European Union Solidarity Fund, the Flexibility Instrument, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, the Contingency Margin, the specific flexibility to tackle youth unemployment and strengthen research and the global margin for commitments for growth and employment, in particular youth employment. Specific provision should therefore be made for a possibility to enter commitment appropriations into the budget over and above the ceilings set out in the MFF where it is necessary to use special instruments.
(6)
If it is necessary to mobilise the guarantees given under the general budget of the Union for the loans provided under the Balance of Payment Facility or the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism set out in Council Regulation (EC) No 332/2002 (2) and in Council Regulation (EU) No 407/2010 (3), respectively, the necessary amount should be mobilised over and above the ceilings of the commitments and payments appropriations of the MFF, while respecting the own-resources ceiling.
(7)
The MFF should be laid down in 2011 prices. The rules for technical adjustments to the MFF to recalculate the ceilings and margins available should also be laid down.
(8)
The MFF should not take account of budget items financed by assigned revenue within the meaning of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) (the 'Financial Regulation').
(9)
This Regulation might need to be revised in case of unforeseen circumstances that cannot be dealt with within ceilings established as part of the MFF. It is therefore necessary to provide for revision of the MFF in such cases.
(10)
Rules should be laid down for other situations that might require the MFF to be adjusted or revised. Such adjustments or revisions might be related to the implementation of the budget, measures linking effectiveness of funds to sound economic governance, revision of the Treaties, enlargements, the reunification of Cyprus, or delayed adoption of new rules governing certain policy areas.
(11)
The national envelopes for cohesion policy are established on the basis of the statistical data and forecasts used for the July 2012 update of the Commission proposal for this Regulation. Given the forecasting uncertainties and the impact for the capped Member States, and to take account of the particularly difficult situation of Member States suffering from the crisis, the Commission will, in 2016, review all Member States' total allocations under the 'Investment for growth and jobs' goal of cohesion policy for the years 2017 to 2020.
(12)
It is necessary to provide for general rules on interinstitutional cooperation in the budgetary procedure.
(13)
Specific rules are also necessary for dealing with large-scale infrastructure projects whose lifetime extends well beyond the period set for the MFF. It is necessary to establish maximum amounts for the contributions from the general budget of the Union to those projects, thereby ensuring that they do not have any impact on other projects financed from that budget.
(14)
The Commission should present a proposal for a new multiannual financial framework before 1 January 2018, to enable the institutions to adopt it sufficiently in advance of the start of the subsequent multiannual financial framework. This Regulation should continue to apply in the event that a new financial framework is not adopted before the end of the term of the MFF laid down in this Regulation.
(15)
The Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions were consulted and have adopted opinions (5),
