Representatives of the EU Council and the European Parliament held discussions throughout the night of Friday 15 November, in an attempt to find a compromise on the main elements of the EU budget for 2020 (see EUROPE 12369/5).
The European Commission has presented several compromise texts, all close to its draft budget for 2020 and has asked ECOFIN Council ministers to give the Finnish Presidency a "flexible" mandate to facilitate common ground between the two arms of the budgetary authority.
The most discussed topics during the conciliation meeting were the expenditure to be devoted to climate objectives, the youth employment initiative, the total amount of expenditure and the use of Article 15(3) of the Financial Regulation ('decommittals' resulting from the non-execution of research projects). On the latter point, the EU Council refused to use this instrument, but some delegations wanted to be more conciliatory, with a view to reaching a compromise.
In the early afternoon, the Commission proposed, as a first compromise: - an increase of 143 million in the total amount of commitment appropriations; - €190 million increase in appropriations (compared to what was already planned) for climate expenditure (the European Parliament had called for an increase of 2 billion!); - a total in commitments amounting to 0.99% of the EU's gross national income (GNI) (0.90% in payment appropriations); - to maintain margins (€4.5 billion) for unforeseen expenditure in 2020 (the EU Council criticised the fact that the European Parliament was leaving no margins in almost all headings of the multiannual financial framework). France and Germany, in particular, criticised overbudgeting in cohesion policy. In addition, these two countries considered that the article on 'decommittals' (non-execution of research projects) should not be used in 2020.
The conciliation process will end on 18 November. If it fails, the Commission will have to present a new draft budget and the budgetary procedure will start over.
Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger had not ruled out that, in the event of disagreement on the night of Friday night to Saturday, he would have to return to the European Parliament/EU Council 2020 budget negotiating table on Monday 18 November. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)