The European Parliament, led by rapporteur Brando Benifei (S&D, Italy), and the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU, met for the first time on Wednesday 23 October to discuss the Regulation on the Single Market Programme and set the first negotiating date at 18 November.
The meeting lasted no more than one hour and determined what should be discussed at the technical level and which political points should be the subject of interinstitutional negotiations (trilogue). These points include the definition of SMEs, eligible actions, market surveillance procedures and the eternal question of delegated acts.
The budgetary issue is an important subject, given that the European Parliament has significantly increased the dedicated budget to 6.5 billion euros (see EUROPE 12177/16). But this part will be negotiated as part of the budgetary negotiation box on the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
For its part, the European Commission expressed doubts about some aspects of Parliament's position on the modification of the budget allocation, but also on the revision of the general objective on statistics, the capping of administrative expenditure, the use of delegated acts for the adoption of work programmes and the modification of the list of designated beneficiaries in the consumer field. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)