On Thursday 5 July, the member states of the EU reached a unanimous agreement at technical level on the position of the Council on the draft 2019 budget. This agreement is to be confirmed on Wednesday 11 July by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper).
A budgetary trialogue (Council, Parliament, Commission) is scheduled for Thursday 12 July (see EUROPE 12056) and on 24 July, the ECOFIN Council will adopt its position on the draft 2019 budget.
The draft position of the Council on the 2019 budget would have the effect of trimming around €1.5 billion in commitment appropriations from the draft budget as presented by the European Commission.
On payment appropriations, the reduction would be in the neighbourhood of €505 million.
The Council's draft would represent a 2.15% increase in commitments and a 2.42% increase in payments, compared to the 2018 EU budget.
The Council is looking at a total volume of €163.5 billion in commitments and €147.7 billion in payments in 2019.
For the 2019 budget, the Commission proposed a volume of €165 billion in commitments and €148.2 billion in payments. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)