Amending letter No 1/2026

Commission's proposal: Amending Letter No 1 to the draft general budget for the year 2026,  COM(2025) 851 – 8 October 2025 

Council's position: 
Parliament's position: 

Amending Letter No 1 (AL 1/2026) to the draft budget for the year 2026 (DB 2026) covers the following elements, as a result of new information available in the meaning of Article 42 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509:

• Adjustment of payment appropriations to reflect the estimated net budgetary impact in 2026 of the adopted legislation related to the mid-term review of cohesion policy;
• Update of the needs for the NextGenerationEU interest line;
• Update of the estimated needs, assigned revenue and appropriations for agricultural expenditure. In addition to changing market factors, AL 1/2026 also incorporates the impact of decisions in the agricultural sector since the adoption of DB 2026 in July 2025, as well as other proposals expected to have a significant effect during 2026;
• Update of the split between reserve and operational lines for the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs), taking into account the new protocols with Côte d’Ivoire, São Tomé and Príncipe and the Cook Islands;
• Adjustment of the number of posts in the establishment plan of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) following a delegation of additional tasks under the Critical Raw Materials Act;
• Reinforcement of payment appropriations for the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) line to support Bulgaria’s Euro changeover;
• Adjustment of the budgetary nomenclature related to the possibility to transfer resources from the Social Climate Fund (SCF) to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), the Cohesion Fund (CF), the Just Transition Fund (JTF) and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF);
• Adjustments of the EU contribution of several decentralised agencies, as follows:
  • A reinforcement of the European Environment Agency (EEA) to reflect the provisional agreement in the negotiations on the Soil Monitoring Law. The additional amounts are proposed to be compensated by an equivalent reduction of the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE);                     
  • A reduction of the reserve for the Regulation on reattribution of tasks for the European Chemicals Agency – Environmental directives and International conventions (ECHA-ENV), due to the revised financial impact following a delay in the legislative negotiations. The corresponding appropriations will be returned to the LIFE programme;
  • An increase of the EU contribution to the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) to ensure full functionality of the new IT solution as well as to improve cyber security in the Agency. The increase is proposed to be compensated by an equivalent reduction of the Internal Security Fund (ISF).

Overall, the net impact of AL 1/2026 on expenditure in the DB 2026 is a decrease of EUR 386,1 million in commitment appropriations and of EUR 1 888,8 million in payment appropriations.