Brussels, 26/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - Following the protracted disagreement on the 2013 budget, the Commission presented a new proposal on 23 November. The latter should help to reconcile Parliament and the Council and allow the EU to proceed to executing the much-awaited payments. In terms of figures, there has not been a lot of change because the proposal suggests payment appropriations of €151 billion, as opposed to the initial €150.9 billion contained in the initial draft budget of April 2012.
Payment commitments have not undergone any significant change either and now stand at €137.8 billion as opposed to the €137.9 billion in the previous proposal. The Commission is therefore simply proposing cosmetic changes in an effort to comply with the Lisbon Treaty, which stipulates that after 21 days of stalled negotiations, a new proposal must be put forward. The European Commissioner for financial programming and the budget, Janusz Lewandowski, explained, however, that, “our new proposal should help to Council (member states) and the European Parliament agree on a budget by the end of the year”.
His spokesperson, Patrizio Fiorilli, confirmed that the new proposal had barely changed at all, “for commitments there is an increase of 0.05% and the same for payment appropriations. At 99%, it's the same thing”. He explained that the member states' estimates for next year, on which the Commission's proposals are based, have not changed. More importantly, however, he explained that, “conciliation attempts failed not because of the figures but because of the procedures. We will work with the Council and the parliament to overcome these differences of opinion”.
The most difficult subject is the amending budget for 2012 but negotiations are expected to begin again very soon. The Council is already expected to examine the new proposal on Monday 26 or Tuesday 27 November. The Parliamentary committee in charge of the budget is not expected to drag its feet either since the next European Parliament plenary session has been planned for 10 December next. (MD/transl.fl)