Luxembourg, 25/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 25 June, the European Parliament expressed discontent with the compromised reached in the three-way talks on the European Union's multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020 (see EUROPE 10871).
At the General Affairs Council, the Irish Presidency simply presented the outline of the agreement reached with the chair of the European Parliament's budgets committee, Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France). No delegation commented in public. The subject was discussed over dinner by the EU27 ministers and nothing has been confirmed, but it is expected that a meeting will be held on the fringes of the European Summit on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 June of the presidents of the three EU institutions to decide how to proceed.
On Tuesday, the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, the rapporteurs on the MFF and the political group coordinators met up to see whether a deal was do-able in the light of the compromise reached last week. The talks did not give certainty of a majority being won at the European Parliament on the compromise that has been negotiated. A parliamentary source said there hadn't been any real change, there were huge problems with flexibility and a demand for a binding deal on the payment gap for 2012 to be met in 2013 (€11.2 billion). And then, one country is vetoing the €500 million needed if Croatia is to join the EU on 1 July 2013.
Lamassoure goes along with the compromise, but joint leader of the Greens/EFA, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, says the compromise on the table is not acceptable. He says the European summit has slashed the European Commission's draft budget, itself a freeze on the European budget for 2013, by €85 billion, which is a cut of almost 9%. In addition to this insult, said Cohn-Bendit, the spending priorities have been totally upset because the Council favours national interest at the cost of future investment in Europe.
The General Affairs Council had received prior warning of the situation, putting the Irish Presidency in a difficult position. Deputy Irish Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said that no comments had been made about the contents and he would not be asking the Council of Ministers at this stage to officially endorse the text they had received that day. Gilmore said it was a fair and balanced compromise and asked the member states to support it so that talks can continue with the European Parliament to reach a final settlement.
EU Budget Commissioner Januz Lewandowski said the deal was disappointing and a lot still needed to be done before agreement can be reached.
Flexibility. It is envisaged that the Commission will increase the payment caps in the draft regulation for 2016 to 2020 by the difference between the payments actually implemented and the MFF payment cap.
The cumulative effect of these annual adjustments must not exceed the following upper limits: - in 2016: €3 billion; - 2017: €3 billion; - 2018: €4 billion; - 2019: €6 billion; - 2020: €8 billion. An overall margin is envisaged for spending on growth and jobs. The draft compromise says that unused MFF budget headings for commitment appropriations for 2014-2016 can be an overall MFF margin for commitments, which can then be used, within the spending caps for 2017 to 2020, to achieve jobs and growth targets, particularly on youth employment measures.
The draft compromise says that, by the end of 2016, the Commission must publish a mid-term review of how the MFF for 2014-2020 is working in practice, taking account of the economic situation at the time and the most recent macroeconomic forecasts. If it does not publish a review, then a compulsory review will be accompanied by draft legislation to revise the budget rules, as set out in the treaty.
A statement on own resources is expected to be made, which will mention the establishment of a high-ranking group to made a general assessment of own resources and publish an initial report by the end of 2014. Technical progress will be assessed at political level at regular meetings, to be held at least every six months. (MD/LC/transl.fl)