EU leaders strike deal on 2014-20 budget
March 10, 2020 | News | No Comments
Member states make last-minute concessions to secure MEPs’ backing.EU leaders strike deal on 2014-20 budget
The European Parliament has extracted concessions from the member states on the European Union’s budget for 2014-20.
Concessions made in last-ditch talks in Brussels this morning between the EU’s main institutions open the way for the revised formula to be put to a vote at next week’s meeting of the Parliament in Strasbourg. Martin Schulz, the Parliament’s president, gave his backing to the compromise deal this morning at a meeting with Enda Kenny, Ireland’s prime minister, representing the member states, and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission.
“This is not an easy compromise, I must fight in the European Parliament for a majority,” Schulz said.
Kenny agreed to more flexibility to shift unspent funds between budget headings and fiscal years – a core demand of Parliament – and to frontload (ie, bring forward in the seven-year budget period) funding foreseen for youth employment, research, the Erasmus student exchange scheme, and support to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Barroso said that there was more flexibility both on the budgeted commitments (ie, undertakings to pay) and on actual payments. Unused payment appropriations in any budget year can be fully rolled over to the next year in 2014-17; after that, each year has a ceiling for such roll-overs – €7bn for 2018, €9bn for 2019, and €10bn for 2020. unused commitment appropriations from 2014-17 may be used, from 2016, for policies to do with growth and employment. Barroso said that member states that wish to increase European aid to the most deprived were being given greater freedom to do so.
The member states also provided assurances to Schulz and to Alain Lamassoure, the Parliament’s budget negotiator, that there would be a substantial mid-term review of the multi-annual financial framework, another core demand from Parliament. Schulz also claimed an advance in that the post-2020 multi-annual financial framework would be aligned with the EU’s institutional calendar and run for five rather than seven years.
Linked to the discussions on the 2014-20 budget, which amounts to €960 billion, is an agreement on amending the annual budget for 2013. On the European Commission’s request for an additional €11.2bn to cover outstanding payments during the 2013 budget year, the member states agreed to adopt a first instalment, of €7.3bn, no later than a meeting of finance ministers on 9 July.
On the balance, they committed themselves to consider new figures on outstanding payment claims that the Commission is asked to submit in “the early autumn”.
Barroso read out part of the text of the agreement on 2013, saying: “The Council commits [itself] to decide without delay on a further draft amending budget to avoid any shortfall in justified payment appropriations.”
The Parliament and the Council will now each take steps to advance the revised deal on the 2014-20 budget through their decision-making machinery. The Parliament has convened a meeting of the leaders of the political groups this morning, which is asked to approve putting the budget on to the agenda of next week’s plenary session of the Parliament. There will be a special meeting of the Parliament’s budget committee in Strasbourg on Monday (1 July).
The plenary vote, likely to be held on Wednesday, will be on a general political resolution to approve the deal. Votes on the legal texts would happen after the summer break.
On the Council’s side, the deal will be put to a special meeting of member states’ ambassadors in Brussels tomorrow (28 June). Unanimous approval is required from the Council of Ministers and formal adoption would come after the Parliament’s vote.
Kenny said: “We can bring all the member states with us on this.”
Schulz said: “This is now a question of mutual trust. I hope that all member states will follow one member state – Ireland – who did a great job.” He said: “I can live with the result and I will fight for the result.”
He said the Parliament’s main demand had been “to make sure that the €908bn foreseen in payments are really available”, and that this demand had now been met through greater flexibility and a revision clause.
Failure to reach a deal today, before next week’s plenary and before Ireland hands over the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers to Lithuania, would have greatly complicated spending from 1 January 2014.
Today’s meeting had been convened by Barroso as a last chance to agree a deal before the institutions’ summer break.
A compromise deal struck last week between Lamassoure and Eamon Gilmore, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, unravelled when a majority of political groups in the Parliament came out to oppose it, saying that Parliament’s demands had not been met.
The €960 billion budget had been agreed by member states’ leaders at a summit in February, but rejected by the Parliament in March.
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