Brussels, 06/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - Different ideas for seeking compromise were doing the rounds, on Thursday 6 November, with a view to changing the regulation on the own resources to allow the United Kingdom to pay its top-up contribution (€2.1 billion) in instalments between December 2014 and early 2015. The subject will be discussed at the Ecofin Council, this Friday 7 November.
Could a solution be within reach over the extra €2.1 billion the United Kingdom is to pay into the European budget by 1 December, provoking the displeasure of David Cameron, at the most recent meeting of the European Council (EUROPE 11184)? No agreement has been reached as yet, far from it; but work on the subject made decent progress at two meetings of Coreper, on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 November.
The European Commission and the Italian Presidency of the Council are to make a proposal to the Ecofin Council to discuss the issue of the UK's top-up contribution to the 2014 budget. The Commission has agreed to the idea that the additional funds requested of the United Kingdom could be paid in instalments. This was the main achievement of the Coreper meeting on Thursday 6 November. The aim: the Ecofin Council could call upon the Commission to make a proposed revision of the regulation on the own resources. This would require a qualified majority agreement at the Council. The Italian Presidency hopes that this revision can be carried out next week (the Ecofin Council on the 2015 budget having been scheduled for 14 November).
On Thursday, the Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, said upon his arrival at the Eurogroup meeting that he had no objection to the UK settling its accounts by way of instalments into 2015.
The French finance minister, Michel Sapin, said that it was possible to “reach solutions allowing everybody to pay what they have to pay”. “I am in favour of sticking to the rules, all of the rules, with the flexibility built into them”, he added.
At the Coreper meeting of Wednesday 5 November, the Italian Presidency presented a compromise package on the draft 2015 budget and on the various amending budgets for 2014. However, a number of countries called for the Commission to provide more specific elements on the revision of the contributions, which it did on Thursday.
The UK delegation referred to an “exceptional” situation and an adjustment amount (€2.1 billion) which it described as ten times higher than usual. The United Kingdom argues that not only must the problem be sorted out for 2014, but steps must be taken to ensure that the situation does not recur in the future. Like the Netherlands, the UK said that it was currently checking the figures and called for all of the EU countries to be involved in seeking a solution. The UK delegation stressed the need for objective criteria.
On the issue of the revision of the contributions, the Commission representative noted that there was willingness among the countries of the EU to seal a “political solution” with a solid legal basis and taking account of the exceptional situation. “We need an agreement by mid-November and certainly by 1 December”, the Commission stressed.
Appeal for calm. The British Commissioner for Financial Services, Jonathan Hill, called for calm over the extra €2.1 billion to be paid into the European budget. “The smartest thing to do is to calm the situation down, look at the facts and seek practical solutions to the challenges facing several European countries”, Hill told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 6 November.
The Commissioner, who is a member of David Cameron's Conservative party, said that the dossier had become “highly political” in the UK. In order to keep the Eurosceptics within his Conservative party happy, David Cameron has promised to hold a referendum by 2017 on the UK's membership of the EU, if he wins the elections of May 2015. The debate on EU membership is both “lively” and “desirable”, because we need to “lance the abscess”, insisted Hill, who sees himself as “an interpreter between the UK and Brussels”. The Commission ended by saying that the “practical and rational side of the British” would hold sway and lead them to stay within the European Union, “even though they may not be desperately enamoured of it”. (LC)