Brussels, 17/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - To come to an agreement on the EU budget for 2012, the Council of Ministers of the EU and the European Parliament (EP) will seek a compromise on Friday 18 November, on the most troublesome issues: the level of payment appropriations, the priorities under the competitiveness and external action headings, and funding for ITER (the international experimental thermonuclear reactor).
The Council will convene at 10.00am under the chairmanship of Jacek Dominik, Under-Secretary of State in the Polish Finance Ministry. It will provide guidance to the Polish Presidency for the meeting of the Conciliation Committee on the EU budget for 2012. If the Conciliation Committee reaches agreement on a joint text, the Council and the European Parliament have to formally approve it within 14 days.
Payment appropriations. The Council agreed on 25 July to limit the EU budget for next year to €146.245 billion in commitment appropriations and €129.088 billion in payment appropriations (corresponding to 0.98% of the EU's Gross National Income -GNI - and representing an increase of 2.02% compared to 2011). The increase in payment appropriations advocated by the Council corresponds to the 2% inflation rate forecast by the Commission, meaning that, in real terms, the Council position would result in a freeze on the budget. The European Parliament requested an amount of €147.764 billion in commitments and €133.139 billion in payments (+5.23%). The Commission proposed for 2012 an amount of €147.835 billion in commitments and €132.739 billion in payments, leading to an increase of respectively 4.0% and 4.9% compared with 2011.
Sub-heading 1a (competitiveness for growth and employment). The Council wishes to redeploy at least €100 million in 2012 to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The EP rejects redeployments. It wishes to finance its priorities (7th Research Framework Programme, Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme, Lifelong Learning, Erasmus Mundus) by exceeding the ceiling of the current multiannual financial framework and using the Flexibility Instrument to provide €30.75 million. The Council insists on respecting the multiannual financial framework (MFF) ceilings and disagrees with the use of the Flexibility Instrument.
Sub-heading 1b (cohesion for growth and employment). Disagreement is mainly on the level of payments: the Council wants to limit them to €43.8 billion, while the Parliament is asking for them to be increased to €45.1 billion, similar to the level of the draft budget of the Commission.
Heading 2 (preservation and management of natural resources). The EP wants €350 million more than the Council to help the fruit and vegetable sector (the EP is calling for a total of €900 million for this sector, compared with the Council's proposal of €550 million and the Commission's €650 million).
Sub-heading 3a (freedom, security and justice). Parliament proposes increasing the funding for FRONTEX, the European Asylum Support Office, the refugee fund and emergency measures for mass influxes of refugees by €48 million in commitment appropriations (€40 million in payment appropriations).
Heading 4 (the EU as a global partner). The EP is calling for an increase of €100 in funding for Palestine. Parliament wishes to finance this and other priorities by exceeding the ceiling of the MFF and using the Flexibility Instrument to find €153 million. It reduced commitment and payment appropriations for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) by €36 million compared with the draft budget and the Council's position.
Heading 5 (administration). Even if it reduces overall EU administrative expenditure by €25 million compared with the draft budget, the EP is still nearly €49 million above the Council's position.
The Conciliation Committee will also discuss: - draft amending budget No 6 to the EU budget for 2011 which includes, inter alia, an increase in payment appropriations of €550.3 million; - the financing of the additional needs of the ITER project (€1.3 billion in commitment appropriations) in 2012 and 2013, inter alia, through the EU 2012 budget and a revision of the multiannual financial framework. (LC/transl.rt)