Brussels, 23/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2014-2020 will take pride of place at the General Affairs Council of the EU in Brussels on Monday 27 March 2012, with European ministers holding a policy debate on the first issues in the “negotiating box”, which highlights the most important issues to get the talks rolling so that agreement on the MFF can be reached by the end of the year. The Council will also discuss the conclusions document issued by the European Summit earlier this month, in which the Danish Presidency gives a progress report on matters such as the internal market.
The negotiating box document covers Heading 1 of the budget (Growth), though not cohesion policy or the “Connecting Europe Facility”. It also covers Heading 3 (Security and Citizenship), Heading 4 (Global Europe), Heading 5 (Administration), and over-arching issues not included in the EU budget, like ITER, GMES and flexibility systems. In the coming weeks, the Danish Presidency will supplement these first elements with the remaining, important, elements belonging to the MFF negotiating package (Cohesion, CEF and Heading 2 (Sustainable Growth: Natural Resources and Own Resources), which covers agriculture. When it comes to agriculture, the negotiating box includes annual upper spending limits, the direct aid distribution model, the upper aid limits for big farms, making direct aid “greener”, transfers between Pillar One (Direct Aid) and Pillar Two (Rural Development), co-financing of Pillar Two and transferring cash from Heading 2 to Heading 1 to cover food aid for the least well off in Europe.
The General Affairs Council of 24 April is expected to hold a discussion on the negotiating box for Cohesion and Agriculture. EU finance ministers will discuss the 2014-2020 MFF at their meeting on 30 and 31 March, and the 28-29 June European summit will discuss progress in the light of the negotiating box talks. The Danish Presidency is hoping for agreement by the end of June on general guidelines (no figures at this stage) on most of the draft legislation. It is hoped that agreement on the MFF will be reached by the end of the year, under the Cypriot Presidency.
The MFF talks are divided into three sections - the MFF Regulation for 2014-2020 itself, the five items of own resource legislation and around 75 other items of legislation on the various EU policies. The negotiating box includes key aspects from the financial point of view from all three of the MFF sections. Once the European Summit has reached agreement in principle, it will be possible to finalise the legislative work. The European Parliament will issue an opinion either approving or rejecting the 2014-2020 MFF en masse (no amendments are allowed), along with one of the regulations on the implementation of own resource measures. The EP is being consulted on the other four items of own resource legislation, and is co-legislator on most of the 75 or so draft sector-specific items of legislation. (LC/transl.fl)