Brussels, 29/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - The ministers and secretaries of state responsible for European affairs are meeting in Nicosia on Thursday 30 August to discuss the sensitive file of the multiannual financial framework 2014-2020. The Cypriot Presidency hopes to get the lines moved, suggesting at this informal meeting the start of a discussion on the amounts calculated in the multiannual financial framework.
The meeting will be presided over by the Cypriot minister, Andreas D. Mavroyiannis, who hopes to make progress in discussions on this file. The Presidency hopes to bring the Council to an agreement by the end of the year. The discussions will be based on its working document summarising the bilateral meetings with all the EU countries which took place in July.
The European Commission will be represented at the meeting, as will a delegation from the European Parliament.
Extraordinary summit in November?
European leaders plan to meet again in Brussels in November for an extraordinary summit on the EU budget for 2013-2020, according to some sources. The European Commission is proposing a total envelope of €1.033 trillion, that is 1.08% of EU GNI for commitment appropriations, instead of €1.025 trillion (1.05% of EU GNI) in the original proposal of 29 June 2011. The revised proposal provides for a ceiling of €988 billion, that is 1.03% of GNI, for payments, instead of the €972 billion in the original proposal (1% of GNI).
The Commission held an orientation debate on this dossier on 29 August in order to prepare the informal meeting of the European ministers. It defended the ambitious level of its proposal and recalled that 95% of the budget goes directly to the countries of the EU (so only 5% goes to the administrative expenditure of the EU institutions). It said that an agreement is necessary for the end of the year because a year is then required to finalise the programmes (including regional policy, external action, research and agriculture). At the last General Affairs Council (see EUROPE 10662), the Commission's proposal raised a general outcry from several of the so-called “net contributor” countries (including the United Kingdom and Germany), which support a drastic reduction in the amounts. Other countries (including Spain, Portugal, Poland and Greece) consider that the amounts for cohesion policy are too low. Countries are divided over the need to discuss EU own resources (receipts part of the EU budget). France opposes the UK on maintaining the envelope for agricultural spending. (LC/transl.fl)