On Thursday 28 September, a source close to the issue said that the first trialogue meeting on extending the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) had "gone well". The IcSP is the EU's instrument supporting security and peace-building activities in order to foster security and development.
"The positions are not very far apart, except on financing", another source told EUROPE. According to both sources, the most sensitive point is the issue of financing. The European Parliament agrees that the new IcSP mission can be financed under Heading IV of the EU's general budget for the 2014-2020 multi-annual financial framework (in other words, financing linked to external relations) but it does not agree that it should draw from the credits allocated to development. The Council, for its part, agrees that such funds can be used. The goal is to provide the IcSP with a further €100 million until 2020 in order to enable it, in exceptional circumstances, to make use of this fund to strengthen military capacities in partner countries.
The Parliament also wants to have more control and monitoring over the IcSP, which, according to the source close to the issue, "will be complicated, but at the technical level we will find wording" that will be satisfactory for all parties.
The next trilogue meeting is due to take place on 18 October. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)