Brussels, 14/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's budgets committee has expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the 11-12 November conciliation meeting that reached agreement on the EU's budget for 2014 (see EUROPE 10961).
The committee members say it was the best compromise possible given the current economic and political background at European level. The EP plenary will formally endorse the EU's budget for 2014 next week.
The compromise provides a total of €135.50 billion in payment appropriations for 2014, after the Council of Ministers agreed to raise the sum by €500 million. Taking 17 hours to discover that the half-way point between zero and a billion is 500 million is 16 hours and 30 minutes to long, commented Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), chair of the EP's budgets committee. He said that lessons needed to be learned for the future. Anne Jensen, the EP's rapporteur on the 2014 budget, said that they had had to wait 12 hours for the Council of Ministers to agree to the compromise.
Lamassoure says the outcome provides legal certainty because it means that the 2013 budget can be implemented without any shortfall. He welcomed the fact that the EP had managed to get the Council of Ministers to agree on an additional €11.2 billion in payment appropriations.
Budget for 2013. On Thursday, the EP's budgets committee approved draft amending budget No. 9 for 2013, which makes provision for €400.5 million from the Solidarity Fund to repair flood damage in Germany (€360.5 million), Austria (€21.7 million) and the Czech Republic (€15.9 million), and problems caused by drought in Romania (€2.5 million). Under the compromise, this will be funded as follows: €250 million by redeploying cash from the 2013 budget and €150 million to be taken from the 2014 budget.
Flexibility instrument. The budgets committee endorsed a decision to use the Flexibility Instrument in 2014 to provide €89.3 million in commitment appropriations to finance some of the extra €100 million of aid granted to Cyprus. The cash will come from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund, and is covered in amending letter No. 1 for the 2014 budget. (LC/transl.fl)