CHAPTER 6 Principle of specification
Article 24General provisions
Appropriations shall be earmarked for specific purposes by title and chapter. The chapters shall be further subdivided into articles and items.
Article 25Transfers by institutions other than the Commission
1.Any institution other than the Commission may, within its own section of the budget, transfer appropriations:
(a)from one title to another up to a maximum of 10 % of the appropriations for the year shown on the line from which the transfer is made;
(b)from one chapter to another and from one article to another without limit.
2.Three weeks before making a transfer, as referred to in paragraph 1, the institution shall inform the European Parliament and the Council of its intention to do so. In the event that duly justified reasons are raised within that period by either the European Parliament or the Council, the procedure laid down in Article 27 shall apply.
3.Any institution other than the Commission may propose to the European Parliament and the Council, within its own section of the budget, transfers from one title to another exceeding the limit of 10 % of the appropriations for the year shown on the line from which the transfer is to be made. Those transfers shall be subject to the procedure laid down in Article 27.
4.Any institution other than the Commission may, within its own section of the budget, make transfers within articles without informing the European Parliament and the Council beforehand.
5.The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the calculation of percentages of transfers by institutions other than the Commission.
Article 26Transfers by the Commission
1.The Commission may, within its own section of the budget, autonomously:
(a)transfer appropriations within each chapter;
(b)with regard to expenditure on staff and administration which is common to several titles, transfer appropriations from one title to another up to a maximum of 10 % of the appropriations for the year shown on the line from which the transfer is made, and up to a maximum of 30 % of the appropriations for the year shown on the line to which the transfer is made;
(c)with regard to operational expenditure, transfer appropriations between chapters within the same title, up to a maximum of 10 % of the appropriations for the year shown on the line from which the transfer is made.
Three weeks before making the transfers referred to in point (b) of the first subparagraph, the Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council of its intention to do so. In the event that duly justified reasons are raised within that period by the European Parliament or the Council, the procedure laid down in Article 27 shall apply.
By way of exception from the second subparagraph, the Commission may, during the last two months of the financial year, autonomously transfer appropriations concerning expenditure on staff, external staff and other agents from one title to another within the total limit of 5 % of the appropriations for the year. The Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council within two weeks after its decision on those transfers.
2.The Commission may, within its own section of the budget, decide on the following transfer of appropriations from one title to another, provided it immediately informs the European Parliament and the Council of its decision:
(a)transfer of appropriations from the "provisions" title referred to in Article 46, where the only condition for lifting the reserve is the adoption of a basic act pursuant to Article 294 TFEU;
(b)in duly justified exceptional cases such as international humanitarian disasters and crises occurring after 1 December of the financial year, transfer unused appropriations for that financial year still available in the budget titles falling under heading 4 of the multiannual financial framework to the budget titles concerning crisis management aid and humanitarian aid operations.
3.The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the calculation of percentages of internal transfers by the Commission, and grounds for transfer requests.
Article 27Transfer proposals submitted to the European Parliament and the Council by the institutions
1.Each institution shall submit its transfer proposals simultaneously to the European Parliament and the Council.
2.The European Parliament and the Council shall take decisions on transfers of appropriations as provided for in paragraphs 3 to 6 of this Article, except as otherwise provided for in Title I of Part Two.
3.Except in urgent circumstances, the European Parliament and the Council, the latter acting by qualified majority, shall deliberate upon each transfer proposal within six weeks of its receipt by both institutions.
4.The transfer proposal shall be approved, if, within the six-week period, any of the following occurs:
(a)the European Parliament and the Council approve it;
(b)either the European Parliament or the Council approves it and the other institution refrains from acting;
(c)the European Parliament and the Council refrain from acting or do not take a decision to amend or refuse the transfer proposal.
5.The six-week period referred to in paragraph 3 shall be reduced to three weeks, unless either the European Parliament or the Council requests otherwise, in the following cases:
(a)the transfer represents less than 10 % of the appropriations of the line from which the transfer is made and does not exceed EUR 5 000 000;
(b)the transfer concerns only payment appropriations and the overall amount of the transfer does not exceed EUR 100 000 000.
6.If either the European Parliament or the Council has amended the amount of the transfer while the other institution has approved it or refrains from acting, or if the European Parliament and the Council have both amended the amount of the transfer, the lesser of the two amounts shall be deemed approved, unless the institution concerned withdraws its transfer proposal.
Article 28Specific rules on transfers
1.Appropriations may only be transferred to budget lines for which the budget has authorised appropriations or which carry a token entry "pro memoria".
2.Appropriations corresponding to assigned revenue may be transferred only if such revenue is used for the purpose for which it is assigned.
Article 29Transfers subject to special provisions
1.Transfers within the titles of the budget devoted to the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, the Structural Funds, the Cohesion Fund, the European Fisheries Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and Research shall be the subject of special provisions under Titles I, II and III of Part Two.
2.Decisions on transfers to allow the use of the Emergency Aid Reserve shall be taken by the European Parliament and the Council on a proposal from the Commission. A separate proposal shall be submitted for each emergency action.
For the purposes of this paragraph, the procedure provided for in Article 27(3) and 27(4) shall apply. If the European Parliament and the Council do not agree to the Commission proposal and cannot reach a common position on the use of this reserve, they shall refrain from acting on the Commission's transfer proposal.
3.The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on requests for transfers from the Emergency Aid Reserve.