Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Change 59

AddedBUDGETARY ASSESSMENT OF THE COMMITTEE ON BUDGETS

Addedfor the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety

Addedon the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Chemicals Agency and amending Regulations (EC) No 1907/2006, (EU) No 528/2012, (EU) No 649/2012 and (EU) 2019/1021

Added(COM(2025)0386 – C100141/2025 – 2025/0207(COD))

AddedRapporteur for budgetary assessment: Hélder Sousa Silva

AddedThe Committee on Budgets has carried out a budgetary assessment of the proposal under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure and has reached the following conclusions:

AddedThe Committee on Budgets,

Added– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (Financial Regulation),

Added– having regard to Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 of 17 December 2020 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027,

AddedA. whereas this proposal is aimed at strengthening the governance of the European Chemicals Agency (‘the Agency’), while enabling it to effectively perform the tasks assigned to it under existing legislation and allowing its mandate to evolve in line with new responsibilities arising from adopted or forthcoming initiatives;

AddedB. whereas the Agency is partially self-financed, with sources of income deriving from three different regulations; whereas this has required the establishment of three separate budgets and staffing plans, leading to operational inflexibility and a significant administrative burden; whereas the fees received by the Agency are highly volatile and non-linear in terms of amount and timing, mainly as a result of their one-off nature and their dependence on the strategic decisions of chemicals industry players;

AddedC. whereas the Joint Statement of Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 19 July 2012 on decentralised agencies was signed by the three institutions after the creation of the Agency;

AddedD. whereas in 2025, fees charged to industry accounted for around 30 % of the Agency’s general revenues, with fees charged under the REACH Regulation and the CLP Regulation representing the largest share of those fees;

AddedE. whereas revenues from REACH fees are extremely difficult to forecast, as they are usually one-off and there is a reduction of up to 95 % for small and medium-sized enterprises;

AddedF. whereas the Agency currently operates under a universal budgeting model, whereby revenues derived from fees charged to the chemicals industry and the balancing contribution from the EU are not segregated, possibly creating cross-subsidisation between the two;

Added1. Insists that the resources allocated to the Agency must be in line with the tasks entrusted to it, and notes that, at this stage, the proposal appears to provide sufficient financial and human resources for the planned changes, since the proposal’s estimated financial impact for the remaining period of the current multiannual financial framework (MFF) is limited to EUR 0.577 million in staff expenditure as operational appropriations under Heading 1, and an estimated EUR 2.956 million in administrative appropriations for the post-2027 MFF;

Added2. Stresses that, should additional responsibilities be granted to the Agency in the course of the negotiations, the financial implications will need to be assessed and the legislative financial and digital statement accompanying the proposal will have to be revised accordingly, in order to ensure that the financial and human resources allocated by the legislative proposal match the tasks entrusted to the Agency;

Added3. Reiterates that any new tasks entrusted to decentralised agencies should be financed through fresh appropriations, and that redeployments from other programmes and priorities should be limited and examined with due care;

Added4. Welcomes the abolition of the requirement for segregated budgets and their grouping into a single budget line for the EU budget contribution to the Agency, which simplifies the Agency’s budgeting model, enhances transparency and allows for year-on-year comparison, taking into consideration the additional tasks attributed to the Agency;

Added5. Welcomes the abolition of the requirement for segregated staffing plans, which removes operational impediments that affect the management of human resources, thus allowing the Agency to better adjust staff allocations in the light of its workload and improving its productivity;

Added6. Underlines the importance of regularly assessing the level of fees in the light of changes in costs, in line with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/715;

Added7. Considers that, given the volatility of the revenues received by the Agency from fees and charges, the creation of a reserve for the Agency promotes the long-term sustainability of its financial model, increases its resilience to possible future crises and protects the financial interests of the EU’s budget and taxpayers; affirms that the creation of a reserve for the Agency makes it, at present, an exception among partially self-funded EU decentralised agencies, and requires close monitoring of the Agency’s operations as well as assessment in the near future;

Added8. Determines that the proposal is compatible with the MFF, the system of own resources, the Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2020 and the budgetary principles laid down in the Financial Regulation.