Brussels, 03/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 September, the EU Council of Ministers formally adopted its position on the 2015 EU draft budget (see EUROPE 11122). This endorses the political agreement reached by the Permanent Representatives Committee of EU member states on 15 July. Only the UK abstained.
The Council's position provides a negotiation mandate to the Italian Presidency. If at the end of October the European Parliament adopts amendments to the Council's position, a three-week conciliation period will start on 28 October. “On the basis of the agreed Council position on the draft EU budget 2015, the Italian Presidency now aims to engage with the European Parliament, in a constructive spirit”, said Italy's State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Finance Enrico Zanetti.
The Council's position on the 2015 draft budget can be summarised as follows: €140 billion in payments (which corresponds to 1.00% of the EU's Gross National Income (GNI), in other words 3.3 % more than in the 2014 budget); €145.08 billion in commitments (or 1.04% of the EU's GNI), in other words an increase of 1.7 % compared to 2014. A press release states that “sufficient margins have been left under the ceilings for both payments and commitments in order to enable the EU to cope with unforeseen events”.
Payments for activities such as research, innovation and education increase by €2.8 billion or 24.5 % (sub-heading 1a “competitiveness”). Compared to the amounts proposed by the Commission, the Council reduced the payments by €2.1 billion and the commitments by €522 million. (LC)