In the small hours of Saturday 18 November, the member states and the European Parliament agreed on the EU budget for 2018, the last one before Brexit. Parliament and the member states had been in disagreement over the figure to be laid down for the commitment and payment appropriations.
The member states consider that the 2018 EU budget should stand at €158.9 billion in commitment appropriations and €144.4 billion in payment appropriations, or an increase of 0.6% and 7.4% on the two 2017 budget lines respectively (see EUROPE 11828). In Parliament’s view, on the other hand, the 2018 budget should stand at €162.6 billion in commitment and €146.7 billion in payment appropriations.
The figures decided upon by the negotiators are €160.1 billion for commitment appropriations and €144.7 billion for payment appropriations. “Every euro must be spent efficiently and create added value for Europe”, said the Budget Commissioner, Günther Oettinger. “We have striven this year to maximise the impact of EU spending, whilst maintaining sufficient leeway to be able to react to unforeseen needs”, said the Estonian deputy finance minister, Märt Kivine.
More resources for Europol, Eurojust and the EASO, less for ESMA
The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) gets more money than set out in the Commission’s initial proposal. The detail of the agreement states that the commitment appropriations will be increased by €5 million to stand at €90 million. It is a similar story for Europol, the European police office, which will have a budget of €120.3 million, or €3.6 million more than the Commission proposed.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has been granted commitment appropriations by the member states of €11.6 million, which is €4.3 million less than the Commission’s proposal.
Lower commitment appropriations for space policy and fight against fraud
The commitment appropriations earmarked by the Commission for the land observation programme Copernicus and the European geo-location programme Galileo have been trimmed by €15 million, €10 million of which will come from Copernicus. Overall commitment appropriations have been set by the negotiators at €804 million for Galileo (and EGNOS) and around €627 million for Copernicus.
A similar fate awaits the customs services. Compared to the Commission’s proposal, the budgetary line to support the functioning and modernisation of customs union loses €1.2 million. Commitment appropriations have been set at nearly €79 million. The budget to improve the functioning of the tax administrations, for its part, has been allocated commitment appropriations of €31.8 million, or €154,000 less than the Commission initially proposed.
Lastly, the negotiators have found €6.5 million in commitment appropriations for animal health, the detection and eradication of organisms harmful to plants and control tools.
Turkey will also lose money
It has been coming for several weeks and the European institutions have already had much to say on the subject. In its negotiating position, Parliament cut Turkey’s pre-accession funds by €50 million (with an additional €30 million in reserve) in response to the worsening rule of law and human rights situation in the country.
The final compromise between the European institutions trims €105 million from the pre-accession instruments, including €50 million to support political reforms in Turkey. According to the Parliament press release, a further €70 million in commitment appropriations has also been placed into reserve. €35 million in payment appropriations have been frozen until such time as Turkey presents “measurable sufficient improvements in the fields of rule of law, democracy, human rights and press freedom”.
In total, the pre-accession funds for Turkey for 2018 will stand at €534 million. By way of comparison, the same envelope was €636.4 million in 2017.
Parliament's lead rapporteur, Siegried Mureșan (EPP, Romania), welcomed the move. “Finally, we have shown that those countries that engage in cooperation with the EU and respect democratic standards will continue to have our unconditional support”, he said, adding that the amounts granted by the EU could not be paid out with no strings attached.
More money to counter Russian propaganda, amongst other things
The major financial decision-makers agreed to the request of the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, to increase the budget for strategic communications, particularly for the three communication teams (Stratcom) covering the countries of the East, South and Balkans. Last year, the Council turned down a similar request (see EUROPE 11904). This time, the commitment appropriations have been set at €800,000 for Stratcom. This move aimed for budgetary neutrality, the budget of the European External Action Service having been cut by €800,000.
The other European institutions have also been called upon to do their bit. Firstly, this concerns automatic salary indexing. The effort Parliament must make will amount to cuts of €2.796 million. For the Commission, it will be €13 million (including pensions) and €948,000 for the Council. Further reductions have been found in costs relating to the institutions’ buildings. Here again, the Commission will be called upon to take the lion’s share of the effort (€3.6 million).
The agreement between the institutions furthermore includes a unilateral statement of the Council concerning the target of reducing the staffing levels of the institutions by 5% in 2017. “Not all institutions, bodies and agencies have met the reduction target”, the Council states, calling upon the institutions to continue their efforts and upon the Commission to assess the outcome of this exercise. The Parliament in particular is struggling to meet its target.
Youth unemployment and European Solidarity Corps.
In commitment appropriations, the European Solidarity Corps loses €30 million compared to the Commission’s initial proposal (around €38 million instead of €68 million). In payment appropriations, the line has been thoroughly trimmed (€28.6 million instead of €51 million).
In a unilateral statement, the Commission states that it would propose changes to the budget if the absorption capacity of the ‘Youth employment’ initiative allowed an increase in its financing. In terms of commitment appropriations, however, the negotiators have increased the line earmarked by the Commission (from €233 million to €350 million).
Under pressure from Parliament, the budgetary cut of €750 million proposed by the Council in the field of employment and growth has been reversed. Parliament has also secured additional support for young farmers, of €34 million to reduce youth unemployment in rural areas. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)