The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and representatives of the European Parliament hope to reach a partial interinstitutional agreement by March on the architecture of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for the period 2021-2027.
This was the outcome of the first meeting of interinstitutional negotiations ('trilogues') between the parties, which took place on Tuesday 22 January in Brussels. This echoed the European Commission's proposal of last June (see EUROPE 12035), for which the Council of the EU adopted a partial political agreement in principle ('general approach') and the Parliament its negotiating position in December (see EUROPE 12151, 12158).
This first political meeting, which was relatively short, was immediately followed by a technical meeting. In particular, the parties discussed some definitional issues. Several issues need to be discussed again by the co-legislators, including the scope of the military mobility section, the financing of cross-border projects and several substantive issues.
The next political trilogue will take place on 19 February, and both sides therefore hope to reach a partial agreement by March. No agreement on the full text can be reached, as the budgetary part cannot be finalised due to the ongoing negotiations on the post-2020 multiannual financial framework (see EUROPE 12167). Furthermore, the Council of the EU does not wish to negotiate on the issue of third countries at this stage. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)