Brussels, 06/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - The EU Council of Ministers has finally agreed with the European Commission's suggestion of some rejigging of funding under various headings to allow the financing of new research projects to the tune of €485 million. If the agreement had not been forthcoming, the European Parliament budgets committee would have started talks on Thursday 5 July to make use of leftover funding from 2011 to finance the 220-odd new research contracts. The battle began on 31 May 2012 when the Council decided not to grant funding of more than €338 million, in other words more than two-thirds of the budget plans set out by the European Commission. The funding in question was simply a redeployment and led to a suspension of 220 or so research contracts in healthcare, biotech and nanotechnology, explained the European Parliament in a press release issued on Thursday 5 July. To resolve the matter, the MEPs on the budgets committee called the Council's bluff and suggested taking over the budget surplus of €700 million and the €800 million income from fines and interest on late payments through adoption of a draft amending budget by Francesca Balzani (S&D, Italy). In a U-turn, the draft was amended and then adopted on Thursday 5 July as soon as the Council announced it would accept the entirety of the Commission's proposal. The member states can use the surplus under last year's budget to reduce their contributions, and the new sitituation will be endorsed by the budgets committee on 12 July, two days after the ECOFIN Council approves of it. (JK/transl.fl)