Tallinn, 18/10/2013(Agence Europe) - Despite the hopes of the European Commission to see inter-institutional agreement reached on reform of the Cohesion Policy, the trilogue meeting of Thursday 17 October did not manage to reach agreement, so the European Parliament's vote on the EU's budget will now be postponed, giving negotiators a breathing space, although time is pressing ahead.
The meeting on Thursday evening focussed on the macroeconomic criteria and the Parliament's role in the decision-making process, but also discussed keeping within the EU budget caps when making use of the performance reserve and pre-financing.
The failure of Thursday's talks is not the end of the world. EU Regional Development Commissioner Johannes Hahn was unable to attend on Thursday because he was at a conference on remote regions in Reunion. Earlier on Thursday, the Parliament announced that it was planning to postpone the vote on the multi-annual financial framework (budget) for 2014-2020 scheduled for 23 October, in part due to lack of progress in the talks on reform of the Cohesion Policy. The Parliament has made agreement on cohesion a precondition for its endorsement of the MFF. The delay now gives the negotiators time to continue their talks and on Thursday evening they no longer felt they were racing against the clock. The negotiators will meet up in Strasbourg on Monday evening and on Thursday for a political trilogue meeting, which means that agreement might be possible next week on reform of the Cohesion Policy. (MD/transl.fl)