This Point applies neither to appropriations for cohesion adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure and pre-allocated by Member States, which contain a financial envelope for the entire duration of the programme nor to the large scale projects referred to in Article 16 of the MFF Regulation.

13. Notes that delays in contracting important infrastructure programmes and withheld budget support payments caused individual commitments and payments to be respectively 13 % and 16 % below target in 2011; reiterates its particular concern about the low commitment rate of the 10th EDF regional envelope (31 %), only two years before the end of the programming period; encourages the Commission to strive for smooth financial implementation of this envelope and to draw lessons from the present delays for the next programming period;

3. Notes that delays in contracting important infrastructure programmes and withheld budget support payments caused individual commitments and payments to be respectively 13 % and 16 % below target in 2011; reiterates its particular concern about the low commitment rate of the 10th EDF regional (31 %) envelope, only two years before the end of the programming period; encourages the Commission to strive for smooth financial implementation of this envelope and to draw lessons from the present delays for the next programming period;

Cohesion Policy provides an integrated approach to address the needs of SMEs, covering all phases of business creation and development, and is the largest source of EU support to SMEs with a total volume of EUR 25 billion directly targeted at SMEs in the current financial period (2007-13) out of the EUR 55 billion for Regional Policy business support.

observes that, in accordance with the Commission proposal, the volume of appropriations earmarked for agriculture will fall from 45% in 2007 to 35% in 2013; observes that, although it increases only by 3% over the period, it still represents a disproportionate volume of appropriations which will be even higher if some policies are reduced compared with other policies; will reject any attempt to renationalise the CAP; is concerned that, in the absence of political and financial agreement, the funding of market-related measures and direct payments for Bulgaria and Romania above the ceiling agreed by the Council in 2002 for EU-25 remains in doubt, and proposes therefore that, in order to guarantee ...[+++] the level of support set by the decision of the European Council of October 2002, the possibility of a phasing-in process of compulsory co-financing should be initiated within EU-15 if the needs exceed the forecasts,

The EIB has no country ceilings and lending is therefore largely a result of demand.