Brussels, 12/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - In the COREPER meeting on Thursday 12 November, the Swedish Presidency noted that there was qualified majority on the main points in the draft EU budget for 2010. There remains, however, considerable uncertainty over the technical details of how to fund the recovery plan for the economy. This issue will dominate the conciliation meeting with the European Parliament on Wednesday 18 November, preceding the Council's second reading of next year's draft budget.
To fund the recovery plan in 2010 (€2.4 billion in total), the Commission proposes to increase the ceiling on sub-heading 1a (competitiveness) by €1.587 billion in commitment appropriations in 2010. This increase will be compensated by a reduction in unused funds: 1) in 2009 (€1.302 billion: €1.171 billion from agricultural margins and €131 million under the heading administrative spending); 2) in 2010 (€285 million; €124 million from agricultural margins, €11 million from the heading cohesion policy, and €150 million from administrative spending). The Commission has announced that it has found €135 million following the latest state of execution of the heading agriculture in 2009. There remains €258 million to be found, therefore, at 18 November's conciliation meeting. Several options present themselves, such as using, at least in part, the flexibility instrument (there still remain €110 million from 2009 and the authorised maximum of €200 million in 2010). At this point, the Council is reckoning on a total budget for 2010 of €140.5 billion in commitment appropriations (2.5% more than in 2009) and €121.48 billion in payment appropriations (up 4.5%), which corresponds to 1.03% of EU GNI. At the COREPER meeting, a handful of countries indicated that they would not agree to digging deeper into the heading agriculture to find the money still needed for the recovery plan. (L.C./transl.rt)