Brussels, 03/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 2 May, a majority of EU member states in Coreper (the committee of member states' permanent representatives to the EU) were in favour of funding just one part of the €11.2 billion proposed by the Commission to meet the needs not yet covered by end 2013. The Irish Presidency of the EU Council trusts that the Ecofin Council will, on 14 May, reach a political agreement on this draft rectifying budget No2/2013.
During Thursday's Coreper meeting, the Presidency gave the delegations two options - the first consists of adopting the draft budget unchanged (€112 billion in payment appropriations), and the second of retaining 50-75% of the amounts (between €5.6 and €8.4 billion) requested by the Commission, with a commitment to return to the subject later in 2013.
The so-called cohesion countries stated their preference for the first option although they (particularly Greece, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Estonia) pointed out that they could accommodate the second option on condition that the requests on cohesion policy (€9 billion, in other words 80% of the draft amending budget) are honoured. Some of these countries also wanted rural development to be covered.
The so-called “net contributor” countries to the EU budget (including Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and France) said they were in favour of a two-stage approach, as suggested in the second scenario. However, opinions differ on the amount to retain for the first tranche. Only the Netherlands rejected the two options on extending the payment appropriations, and it called on the European Commission to look for redeployments in the 2013 budget and to return to this issue at a later date. (LC/transl.jl/fl)