On Wednesday 11 July, the member states of the EU are expected to confirm their agreement on the Council's position on the draft 2019 budget, at ambassador level (see EUROPE 12057).
The Council's position is likely to be adopted unanimously; only the United Kingdom is expected to abstain.
According to documents stemming from the work of the budgetary committee, the Council's position provides for a total of €164.06 billion in commitment appropriations and €148.16 billion in payment appropriations; these figures take account of the special instruments of the multiannual financial framework (MFF) of the EU.
Compared to the 2018 budget, these amounts represent an increase of 2.09% in commitment appropriations and an increase of 2.34% in payment appropriations.
The principles retained by the Council include prudent budgetisation, reductions to ensure that sufficient margin is retained under the headings of the MFF and a level of spending not exceeding 1% of GNI (gross national income) of all member states.
For instance, the Council is reducing the draft 2019 budget as presented by the Commission by €1.5 billion in commitments (the reduction is of €505.8 million in payments).
The greatest cuts (compared to the Commission's initial proposal) concern heading 1a, 'competitiveness' (-€794 million, including a €313 million reduction affecting the research programme).
Compared to the 2018 budget, however, the Council is looking at increases of 0.29% for next year (to €22 billion in commitments) for heading 1, 'growth', 2.78% for heading 1b, 'cohesion' (to €57 billion), 0.68% (€59.6 billion) for heading 2, 'natural resources', 5.73% for heading 3, 'security', 10% for heading 4, 'external actions' and 2.33% for heading 5, 'administration'.
Making less use of flexibility. The Council's position reduces the use of the flexibility instrument under heading 3, 'security' (use at a level of €892 million, or €35 million less than initially proposed by the Commission). Under heading 4, the Council mobilises the global margin for commitments at a level of €809 million (€1.1 billion in the Commission proposal). The Commission had proposed to use these tools due to the migration and refugee crisis to free up more funds. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)