Brussels, 01/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 1 December COREPER, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of member states to the EU, approved the new draft EU budget for 2011 that was presented by the European Commission on Friday of last week (see EUROPE 10265). The delegations from the EU Council of Ministers hope that an agreement with the European Parliament (EP) will now be reached in the budget trialogue on 6 December. This would allow the Council to adopt its position on the new draft budget at the Competitiveness Council on 10 December. It will then be the turn of the EP, on 15 December, following a budgets committee vote on 8 December, to settle its position, so that the procedure can be closed and finally a budget for next year made available to the EU.
For the Council, everything is in place for agreement to be reached on 6 December, especially after the progress made last week on funding ITER, the experimental thermonuclear reactor, and on maintenance of budgetary flexibility of up to 0.03% of gross national income (see EUROPE 10265). At the Conciliation Committee of 15 November, the Council brought forward a draft statement, which is still on the table, on the multiannual financial framework. This statement focuses on how the Council and Parliament should cooperate in this area in line with the Lisbon Treaty. The European Commission is expected to make a statement on own resources, to ensure full EP cooperation on this matter. The Commission will also make proposals on own resources in June 2011.
In the afternoon of Wednesday 1 December, the EP budgets committee held a closed-door meeting at which they had a first exchange of views on the follow-up to the 2011 budget procedure, in order to prepare the position of the EP delegation at the 6 December trialogue (EUROPE will return to this). (L.C./transl.rt)