The European Commission is expected to adopt a new EU draft budget for 2019 on Friday 30 November, after the expiry of the budgetary conciliation procedure with no compromise (see EUROPE 12142).
This proposal, which aims to lift the current deadlock, will be presented on Monday 3 December by European Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger at a meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets. The proposal will serve as a basis for the next round of negotiations, on 4, 5 and perhaps 6 December, in trilogues between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission.
The co-legislators will have to reach an agreement in time for Parliament to formally adopt the 2019 EU budget at the last plenary session of the year.
The disagreements between Parliament and the Council do not concern the figures, since a preliminary agreement had been reached on a total budget for next year of €165 billion. Parliament delegation insists on using Article 15 (3) of the new Financial Regulation, which allows, for research appropriations, where not all the appropriations have been committed in year n-2, to use them to supplement the appropriations for year n.
The EU Council is very cautious, citing the risk of setting a “precedent with unknown future consequences”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)