At around 4.00am on Thursday 17 November, after 18 hours of talks, the Council and the European Parliament reached a compromise on the EU budget for 2017, which "strongly reflects the EU's main policy priorities": tackling the migrant and refugee crisis, reinforcing security and encouraging economic growth and job creation.
The Council is expected formally to adopt the agreement on the 2017 budget on 29 November. The Parliament will adopt next year's budget on 1 December.
Three abstentions. Italy said that it would abstain from the vote, as it would have liked to see more money for the urgent issues (migration, youth employment, Erasmus), in line with its position on the multiannual financial framework of the EU (see EUROPE 11669 on the Italian reservation on the mid-term revision of the MFF). Greece announced that it would also abstain, as did the UK.
As this compromise was struck before the end of the conciliation period (to end on midnight on 17 November), Vice-President of the European Commission Kristalina Georgieva was able to end her term as budget commissioner on a high note, before she leaves early next year to join the World Bank. Incidentally, every even-numbered year since 2010 has seen the annual budgetary negotiations break down at the end of the conciliation period. In odd-numbered years, on the other hand, they have all been successful before deadline.
A 2017 budget close to the Commission's proposals. The compromise reached provides for a total Community budget, for 2017, of €157.9 billion in commitments and €134.5 billion in payments, which is close to the Commission's initial proposals (€157.6 billion in commitments and €134.9 billion in payments). Taking account of amending budgets nos 1 to 6, the 2017 budget of the EU will be up 1.7% in commitments, but down 1.6% in payments, due to the 11.2% drop in funding for the cohesion policy. The payment appropriations under heading 3 (security and citizenship) rise by 25.3% to €3.8 billion. For heading 4 (EU in the world), the organisation ONE regrets the fact that 14.7% of expenditure has been cut for humanitarian aid.
More money for migration and security. In order to tackle the migration crisis and reinforce security, the agreement provides for an envelope of nearly €6 billion (taking account of the part of amending letter no.1 agreed to by the European Parliament and the Council allocating an extra €750 million to these actions in 2017). This equates to an increase of 11.3% compared to 2016 expenditure for these actions. This sum will be used to help the member states to resettle refugees, create hosting centres, set in place integration measures and organise the returns of individuals not eligible to remain. The money will also help to protect the borders and fight terrorism and organised crime.
Investing in growth and jobs. €21.3 billion in commitment appropriations (+12% on 2016) will go to stimulating economic growth and creating new jobs in the sub-heading 1a (competitiveness) of the multiannual financial framework (MFF) of the EU. Erasmus+ sees its envelope increased by 19% (to €2.1 billion) and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) will gain 25% (to reach a total of €2.7 billion). The 2017 budget also includes €500 million (in commitments) for the youth employment initiative and €500 million to support farmers in difficulty (dairy and stock rearing).
The Council and the Parliament reiterated that all of the institutions of the EU should make efforts to cut their staffing levels by 5% in 2017. The Council and the Commission have already done the necessary in terms of staff levels, but according to a number of sources, the Parliament has only managed a reduction of 3.2%.
Concessions on both sides. The Parliament worked in a constructive spirit and agreed to drop its calls for a formal link between the agreement on the mid-term revision of the MFF and the negotiations on the 2017 budget. The Council made a gesture towards the Parliament by agreeing to an envelope of an extra €200 million for the 2017 budget: €50 million for each of the following four programmes: Erasmus+, COSME, the Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon 2020. Thanks to budgetary sleight of hand on the part of the Commission, this €200 million represents fresh money as far as the Parliament is concerned, whilst the Council can claim that is has been paid for out of redeployments.
At the final press conference, Ivan Lesay, Slovak Secretary of State for the Ministry of Finance, said that the marathon session had allowed them to reach an agreement in line with the needs of the member states experiencing financial hardship. There is still margin of €1.1 billion under the ceiling of the MFF in commitments, which can be used in the event of unforeseen circumstances, said the Slovak Presidency of the Council. Lesay paid a warm tribute to Georgieva, telling her that everyone was sorry that she was leaving and wishing her all the best for her future career at the World Bank. The chair of the budgets committee of the Parliament, Jean Arthuis (ALDE, France), who described the agreement on the 2017 budget as a good one, told her that "we'll all miss you!". He went on to say that this budget represents a real investment for the future. Georgieva welcomed many of the new initiatives, such as the European solidarity corps and the pilot project to help young people to be more mobile (access to rail). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)