On Thursday 13 July, the delegation of the European Parliament protested about the reductions in credits decided upon by the Council compared to the draft 2018 budget presented by the Commission on 30 May (see EUROPE 11828).
At this budgetary trialogue, the three institutions of the EU were able to take the measure of the work still to be done before they can reach an agreement on the 2018 budget.
Parliament's committee on budgets will adopt its position on 25 and 28 September and on 10 October. The plenary vote is expected to be held on 25 October. The conciliation period will run from 31 October to 20 November. Parliament's final vote is expected to be held on 30 November.
The Estonian Presidency presented the Council's position. Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romania), the rapporteur, is reported to have criticised the fact that the Council has reduced the amount proposed by the Commission, particularly under headings 1a (competitiveness), 3 (security) and 4 (external actions).
The Budget Commissioner, Günther Oettinger, proposed to look at the reductions called for by the Council. In particular, he is reported to have defended the budget under heading 1a (competitiveness), stressing that the EU's aim was to spend 3% of GDP on research (€450 billion), whilst it is currently spending just 2% (€300 million).
On the 2017 budget, Oettinger will present a (5th) draft amending budget for 2017 in July on the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD).
Inter-institutional meeting on payments. Commissioner Oettinger presented the state of execution of payments in 2017. The arrears backlog has disappeared. Between January and mid-June, budgetary execution stood at 47%. It is expected to be higher than in 2016 for headings 1a and 2 (natural resources), and lower for headings 1b (cohesion), 3 and 4. Under heading 3, the €700 million for the relocation of migrants will probably not be disbursed and some of this money will be transferred to other headings (including ITER under heading 1a).
The current under-execution in the cohesion heading will help to finance draft amending budget no. 4 for 2017 (€1.2 billion from Italy following the earthquakes). Oettinger is reported to have urged the member states to speed up the execution of the cohesion funding, or it will be necessary to present an amending budget to reduce the heading 1b amounts in 2017.
Parliament's delegation reiterated its concerns over the under-execution for cohesion and criticised the delays in spending the envelope of €700 million for relocation. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)