Brussels, 18/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The three EU institutions entered crucial talks at around 6.00pm on Tuesday 18 June to try to reach agreement on the European Union's multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020. There are currently great differences of opinion between the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of Ministers, for example on flexibility in the budget. Should the talks fail to reach agreement under the Irish Presidency, then they will continue under the Lithuanian Presidency, which takes over from the Irish on 1 July 2013.
The Irish Presidency hopes agreement can be reached on 18 June, which would then be approaved in Luxembourg on Tuesday 25 June by the General Affairs Council.
The negotiations are on a regulation laying down the MFF for 2014-2020, on which unanimous Council of Ministers' approval is required, and also on a new inter-institutional agreement on financial discipline and implementation of the budget.
The EP has grudgingly agreed to go along with the budget totals for the MFF suggested in February by the European Summit but, in return, wants the Council to make some concessions. Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), chair of the EP's budgets committee, explained recently that the EP had agreed to the risk of a reduction in resources only insofar as this was a temporary reduction, the resources were to be better used and it was possible to find measures to make the EU budget rely on new, autonomous “own resources”, independent of national budgets (see EUROPE 10865).
The Council of Ministers says it has already made plenty of concessions to the EP delegation. It remains to be seen whether they have made enough.
Flexibility. The EP's idea is for it to be possible to use all the MFF budget margins that have not been spent (in both payment and commitment appropriations). The Council agrees, but only for payment appropriations totalling no more than €4 billion a year.
The EP wants flexibility also for funding that is not part of the MFF, such as the emergency aid reserve, the EU Solidarity Fund, the Globalisation Fund and the Flexibility Instrument. The Council agrees that flexibility should be improved, but does not want to hand the EP a blank cheque.
Review clause. The EP calls for a mid-term review clause after the European Parliament elections in 2014 for both spending and income. The MEPs say that, without such a clause, the new EP and the new European Commission (2014-2019) would have to put up with an MFF on which they had no say. The question that is raised in the talks is whether the Commission will politically be forced to introduce special proposals in 2016 or 2017. The EP wants a guarantee that there will indeed be an update.
Own resources. At this stage, the Council of Ministers envisages a roadmap on work to be undertaken in future years. The current draft says that the three institutions will look into the option of new own resources, and the Commission might unveil proposals towards the middle of the 2014-2020 period on new sources of finance, but these would be for the post-2020 MFF.
The budget for 2013. The EP wants the payments needed to meet the budget shortfall for 2013 (some €11.2 billion) to be released. An initial instalment of €7.3 billion has been agreed upon, but the EP wants guarantees about payment of the remaining sum. (LC/transl.fl)
EP wants new proposals
The European Parliament warned the member states on Tuesday that they must be prepared to negotiate if they want an agreement on the MFF. Alain Lamassoure said that, without new proposals from the Irish Presidency, he didn't think it would be possible to reach agreement. He explained that there had already been ten meetings at political level and, without any new proposals, he felt the scope for further talks with the Irish Presidency have been exhausted.
Lamassoure said that there were 754 MEPs at the European Parliament, and it wasn't possible for him to get a majority of them, 378, to approve the current deal given the poor level of concessions by the member states to the EP's demands. He explained that the EP has made a huge sacrifice by agreeing not to argue about the actual amounts of the budget for commitment and payment appropriations but, in return, the parliament had been given nothing. The member states have agreed in principle to add €7.3 billion to the 2013 budget (towards the 2012 shortfall), but set the precondition that the EP must approve the MFF, a condition described by the MEPs as “unacceptable blackmail”. (LC/transl.fl)