The Heads of State or Government of the European Union held a “short discussion” on Thursday 12 December in Brussels on the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and decided to take the next step, said the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
A working process has been defined to reach agreement on the next MFF “in the coming weeks or months”, said Mr Michel. It will hold bilateral meetings with Member States in early 2020 to assess the most appropriate time to "consider a final agreement", without locking itself into a timetable.
25% for the climate. A significant part of the European budget must be allocated to the climate battle, the figure of "at least 25%" having been mentioned by Mr Michel and the President of the Commission, Ursula van der Leyen. The latter stressed the need to conclude quickly on the MFF and to ensure a budget commensurate with "our ambitions and the strategic agenda" of the European Council.
Extraordinary summit? Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès said an extraordinary summit should be held in February.
The Finnish ‘negobox’ was criticised when the leaders arrived at the European summit (see EUROPE 12388/9).
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, supported the Commission’s proposal, which represents 1.114% of the EU’s Gross National Income (GNI), compared to 1.07% in the Finnish proposal. Madrid wants to preserve the traditional policies of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and cohesion. For Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, the Finnish document ignores the position of the ‘cohesion countries’.
French President Emmanuel Macron considered it important to preserve the CAP and cohesion and to finance future policies.
On the other hand, the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, advocated an amount that does not exceed 1.00% of GNI. “Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany are of the same opinion”, he said.
See the conclusions adopted: http://bit.ly/2RKSv2w (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur, with the editorial staff)