Brussels, 15/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - EU member states' experts reached agreement on the draft EU budget for 2014 by a large majority.
The member states' representatives to the EU (Coreper) are expected on Thursday 18 July to approve the Council of Minsters' negotiating position for the 2014 budget before the budget is finally adopted by the Ecofin Council using the written procedure, which runs out on 2 September. New programmes are now exempt from budget cuts (action to tackle youth unemployment). The cuts will focus on programmes where the ministers expect that the exiting budget will not be fully utilised.
At this stage, the Council envisages a total budget for 2014 of €141.7 billion in commitment appropriations, 1.05% of EU gross national income (GNI). This leaves a margin of €769.3 million below the upper limit for the financial perspectives, a fall of 5.98% on the 2014 budget as amended by amending budget Number 1 for 2013 (the budget for Croatia). Total payment appropriations of €134.8 billion (1% of EU GNI) are foreseen, up 1.3% on the 2013 budget (with a margin of € 1 billion).
For the whole of Heading 1 (Growth and Cohesion), the Council suggests €63.7 billion in commitment appropriations (down 9.82% on 2013) and €62.1 billion in payment appropriations (up 4.87% on 2013). For growth, €16.2 billion is planned for commitment appropriations (up 2.89%) and €11.1 billion (up 5.53%). For cohesion, the ministers suggest €47.5 billion in commitment appropriations (down 13.4%) and €50.9 billion in payments (up 7.48%).
For Heading 2 (Natural Resource Management), the ministers want €59.2 billion in commitments (down1.07%) and €43.7 billion in payments (up 0.27%). For agriculture, the ministers suggest €43.8 billion in commitments and payments (up 0.28% for commitments and up 0.27% for payments).
For Heading 3 (Citizenship and Justice), the amounts suggested are €2.1 billion in commitment appropriations (down 9.63%) and €1.6 billion in payment appropriations (down 5.27%).
For External Action (Heading 4), a cut of 12.6% is suggested for commitments (€8.1 billion) and 3.6% (€6 billion).
Some €8.4 billion is foreseen in commitment appropriations for administrative expenditure, which is a 0.28% rise due to costs that cannot be reduced (like pensions and buildings rental). Current expenditure (salary and operating costs for the European institutions) has been reduced by 0.22% in terms of commitments and 0.19% in terms of payments). (LC/transl.fl)