Brussels, 15/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - The committee of member states' permanent representatives to the EU (Coreper) reached qualified majority agreement on Tuesday 15 July on the Council of Ministers' position on the European Union draft budget for 2015, thanks to a compromise agreement drawn up by the Italian Presidency. The agreement means that a special Ecofin Council on the budget will not have to be convened as planned on Thursday 17 July. The talks with the European Parliament are expected to take place at the end of October when it has adopted its own negotiating position in plenary on 22 or 23 October.
Italy's permanent representative to the EU, Stefano Sannino, said: “We are pleased that member states were able to converge towards the compromise proposal put forward by the Presidency. Thanks to this collective effort, we will be able to preserve allocations to policies which address relevant demands from European citizens: fight against unemployment, youth mobility, support to small and medium enterprises, as well as instruments to manage migration flows. We now look forward to starting negotiations with the European Parliament in a constructive spirit, on the basis of a solid consensus in Council”. The United Kingdom's current position is that it will abstain from the vote.
“In terms of figures, the Council's position amounts to €140.00 billion in payments (1% of the EU28 GNI), limiting the increase compared to the 2014 EU budget adopted last year to 3.3%. Total commitments amount to €145.08 billion, up by 1.7 % compared to 2014. Sufficient margins have been left under the ceilings for both, payments and commitments, in order to enable the EU to cope with unforeseen events”, states the Italian Presidency in a press release. Payments for activities such as research, innovation and education will increase by €2.8 billion or 24.5 % (sub-heading 1a “competitiveness for growth and jobs”).
The press release goes on: “Compared to the amounts proposed by the Commission, the Council reduced the payments by €2.1 billion and the commitments by €522 million. The reductions have been targeted on the basis of past and current budget implementation and realistic absorption capacities”.
The Council is expected to formally adopt its negotiating position on the 2015 budget by written procedure at the beginning of September. (LC)