At the meeting of the national ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday 20 September, several member states called for clarifications on the content of the inter-institutional political agreement on the extension of the 'Juncker' investment plan reached by the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU and representatives of the European Parliament.
Certain net contributor countries, such as France, questioned the compliance of the plan to pay for the extension (from €16 to €26 billion) of the public guarantee granted to projects selected by the EFSI fund, the financial arm of the 'Juncker' plan, out of the EU budget.
Under last week's agreement (see EUROPE 11861), an envelope of €275 million will be redeployed from the budgetary line of the Connecting Europe Facility, whilst the Council, backing the Commission's initial proposal, called for a redeployment of €500 million. This therefore gives a difference of €225 million.
On Wednesday, the member states concerned expressed their surprise at this difference of €225 million, calling on the Commission to comply with commitments made on extra funds obtained by redeploying credits, during the mid-term revision of the multi-annual financial framework.
It also appears that the legal services of the Council, which have been consulted by several national delegations, consider that the provision authorising the Parliament to appoint a member of the steering committee of the EFSI fund, who would have no voting rights, runs counter to the treaty. In the event of exceptional circumstances, the committee must take account of the positions of all its members and Parliament would therefore be involved in budgetary implementation, the Council lawyers observed.
The objections raised are unlikely to scupper the agreement entirely. Promising to take them into account, the Estonian Presidency of the Council said that it hoped to conclude the dossier definitively in the next few days. The group of competent national experts will meet this Thursday and Coreper may be consulted again on Wednesday 27 September. A final inter-institutional negotiating session was already scheduled on the sidelines of Parliament's plenary session on 1 October in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)