Brussels, 07/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The negotiations on the European Union's draft budget for 2014 will not be easy next week, because the Council of Ministers and European Parliament take differing views, particularly on the level of payment appropriations for 2014, use of budget flexibility and how draft amending budget No. 9 for 2013 is to be financed (€400.5 million from the EU Solidarity Fund).
If disagreement persists after the conciliation meeting on Monday, it is feared that the European Parliament's budgets committee will not vote on 14 November on a report approving the regulation on the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020 (see EUROPE 10958). The conciliation period of the 2014 budget ends on 13 November.
The Budget Council will begin at 10.00am on Monday 11 November, and will be chaired by Lithuanian Deputy Finance Minister Algimantas Rimkunas. The member states are expected to provide guidance to the Lithuanian Presidency for the second meeting of the Conciliation Committee on the EU's budget for 2014. The Council will then meet again after the Conciliation Committee meeting (which is expected to last a very long time) to endorse any agreement reached. If agreement is in fact reached, it will be formally approved in the following fortnight.
Payment appropriations. The Council of Ministers suggests payment appropriations of a total of €135 billion in 2014 (€134.8 million not including special instruments outside the MFF). The Council says that sufficient margins have to be kept under the various headings. The battle with the EP will be over the level of payment appropriations, where the EP is demanding €1.4 billion extra. Last year, there was a gap of €5 billion, but the EP could well be less flexible this year for electoral reasons. As far as the member states are concerned, the battle will be at a higher pitch because the 2014 budget will set an example for the following ones. In a way, this will be a warm-up round for the new financial perspectives.
Budget flexibility. The EP wants to exceed the caps in a number of areas of the MFF, like Heading 2 (Management of natural resources) and Heading 4 (External action), but the Council opposes this, wanting the flexibility instrument to only be used to cover unforeseen events.
Budget for 2013. The budgets committee has already endorsed the draft amending budgets No. 7 (€150 million from the European Social Fund) and No. 8 (€3.9 billion), so conciliation will look at amending budget No. 9 (€400.5 million from the Solidarity Fund). The Council wants it to be financed by rejigging the existing budget, but the EP wants fresh cash.
Letters of amendment. In conciliation, the Council and EP will discuss the two letters of amendment for 2014. The first is about extra cash for Cyprus, frontloading appropriations for Horizon 2020, COSME, Erasmus and the Structural Funds (€100 million), while the second updates the draft budget, reducing the overall amount of agricultural expenditure by €4.9 million for 2014. (LC/transl.fl)