Brussels, 10/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 9 November 2015, the conciliation committee held its first meeting on the 2016 EU budget and the three institutions displayed a determination to reach agreement on Friday 13 November at the committee's second meeting (taking place at the same time as the Budget Council).
A budget trialogue meeting (involving the Presidency, the European Parliament and the Commission) will take place on Wednesday 11 November to prepare for the meetings on the EU budget two days later.
Budget Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva pointed out that the draft budget for 2016 focuses on reducing unpaid bills, implementing new programmes that reflect the ten priorities of the new Commission and migration. She also presented amending letter No 2 for 2016 which provides additional funding to address the migration and agricultural crises (€1.55 billion in commitments and €1.42 billion in payments to manage the migration crisis). She called on the European Parliament to ensure that agreement is reached within the ceilings of the multiannual financial framework.
Luxembourg Finance Minister and President in office of the Council Pierre Gramegna made clear the seriousness of the situation, with the refugee crisis. “The budget must form part of the solution and not of the problem”, he pointed out. He underlined, too, that not everything can be a priority, highlighting the significant difference (€4 billion) between the positions of the Council and the Parliament. Gramegna stressed that the migration crisis was the number one priority and that the Council was ready to work on the basis of amending letter No 2 for 2016.
José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Portugal), the rapporteur on the general budget for 2016, defended the Parliament's position (see EUROPE 11420), stressing the need for more money for Horizon 2020 (the scheduled funding needs to be restored), Greece (€1 billion), the migration crisis (extraordinary funding is required to address an extraordinary situation), new commitment appropriations in 2016 for the initiative to tackle youth unemployment. He called for the contingency margin to be used to finance the Parliament demands which go beyond the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework.
The commissioner pointed out that the youth employment initiative was being evaluated and suggested that it would be better to await the outcome of this assessment before including new commitments in the budget. In addition, the 2016 budget makes provision for substantial funding for this initiative.
Wide difference between Parliament and Council. In its draft budget for 2016, the Commission proposed to set the total level of commitments at €153.83 billion and the total level of payments at €143.54 billion. This is a decrease of 5.2% in commitments and an increase of 1.6% in payments compared to the 2015 budget (taking account of the seven amendments made so far to the 2015 budget). The Council's position, adopted on 4 September by unanimity, amounts to €153.27 billion in commitments (-5.5% compared to 2015) and €142.12 billion in payments (+ 0.6%). The European Parliament asked, in a vote on 28 October, for total commitments to be increased to €157.43 billion (-3.0% compared to 2015) and total payments to €146.46 billion (+3.7%). Both amounts would significantly exceed the ceilings fixed by the multiannual financial framework: by €1.5 billion and €1.3 billion respectively.
Administrative spending. The EU institutions pledged in December 2013 to reduce their staff numbers by 5% by 2017 compared to 2013. Commission calculations show that the Council's personnel would be cut by 4.5% and the Commission's by 4% by the end of 2016, compared to the posts authorised at the beginning of 2013. By contrast, the Parliament's staff would increase by 0.4% over the same period.
2015. Also on Wednesday, the Council adopted its position backing draft amending budget No 8 for 2015 (budget surplus of €9.4 billion). The Luxembourg Presidency noted during conciliation that, though there had certainly been an unexpected increase in revenue, such as fines of €1.5 billion and customs duties of €800 million, the remainder of this sum was formed by the additional contributions that member states have already paid, or still have to pay. The Presidency pointed out, too, that, under the terms of the financial regulation, it is for the member states to determine how additional revenue is to be used. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)