Brussels, 12/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The three EU institutions meet in Brussels on Friday 13 November to try to thrash out an overall deal on the 2016 budget of the EU. Some tough negotiation is expected.
The Council will meet at 10.00am to prepare the meeting of the Conciliation Committee with the European Parliament and the Commission discussing the 2016 budget the same day from 11.30 onwards. At the trialogue meeting on 11 November, the Council and Parliament refused to change their positions (see EUROPE 11428).
In these negotiations, the Council has three goals. 1) Budgeting must reflect needs for 2016 and leeway has to be built that will allow the EU to respond to unforeseen situations. The current situation makes it clear that “we're not immune to unforeseen situations in 2016, so it would be unwise not to leave sufficient leeway so that it won't be necessary to turn once again to amending budgets”, said a source in the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU, which has put a figure of around 1% of the total budget, or €1.5 billion approximately for this wiggle room. 2) The agreement on the Juncker fund must be respected. In June 2015, a hard won compromise was reached on the arrangements of and sources of funding for the European fund for strategic investment (EFSI). The Council and the Commission say that this agreement must be respected within the framework of 2016 budget negotiations. In its vote at the end of October, Parliament added €1.3 billion to the European research programme Horizon 2020, and the European (infrastructure) interconnection mechanism which were raided to provide funding for the Juncker investment plan. There is no question for the Council of finding new money. 3) The provisions of the inter-institutional agreement on financial discipline of December 2013 have to be observed. These require the EU institutions and agencies to cut staffing by 5% between 2013 and 2017. The Council has managed a 4.5% reduction in staff and the Commission a 4% cut compared with authorised staffing levels at the start of 2013. Parliament, however, is likely to increase staffing by 0.4% over the same period. “If there were to be differing interpretations of these provisions, the three institutions will have to come to agreement on amending the parameter of this 5% reduction”, a source said.
Amending letter No2/2016. The Council is prepared to accept amending letter No2/2016 which relates to additional appropriations (+€1.55 billion in commitments and +€1.42 billion in payments) to help manage the migration crisis “within the framework of an overall agreement and given that there is convergence of views on other points and Parliament demands”, a Luxembourg Presidency source stated. The Commission proposes to make use of the flexibility instrument to find €1.5 billion in commitments and €710 million in payments to finance measures to address the refugee crisis in 2016. The Council accepts that, given the very tight margins in Heading 3 (justice and home affairs), special instruments, such as the flexibility instrument, will have to be pressed into service. At the trialogue meeting on Wednesday 11 November, Parliament again wanted to go further and mobilise the contingency margin to finance its demands which exceed the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)