Brussels, 17/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission is expected to be swiftly reached on the Commission's legislative proposal on raising the 1% (or 1.5%) rate of pre-financing of one of the two budgetary envelopes of the youth employment initiative to 30% (see EUROPE 11246). The three institutions agree both on the general framework and on how to implement the change.
With the adoption of its position on the Commission proposal on Thursday 16 April, the Parliament gave the move effectively unqualified support. The Parliament's employment and social affairs committee had no qualms about adopting the text by rapporteur Elisabeth Morin-Chartier (EPP, France). The amendments suggested to the Commission proposal were purely cosmetic.
In February, the Commission proposed a 30-fold increase in the pre-financing rate of the youth employment initiative (YEI). The current rate is 1%, or 1.5% in countries which have a macroeconomic adjustment programme. The total budget for 2014 and 2015 is €6.4 billion but it is only for half of this amount that pre-financing will be increased.
As for the member states, political agreement is expected to be approved without debate at the General Affairs Council on Tuesday 21 April. While, over the course of the discussions of the last few weeks, some delegations have expressed concerns over equality of treatment in putting in place this new rate of pre-financing and others wanted to be certain that this measure will be European budget neutral, the vast majority of member states were happy, from the very start, with the Commission's suggestion. Given this, it is not surprising that the Latvian Presidency of the Council proposed not to amend the text and that no one has any disagreement with it. (Jan Kordys)