On Thursday, 19 December, the EU Council of Ministers adopted the regulation that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, will guarantee payments from the EU’s 2020 budget to UK beneficiaries, including universities, local communities, farmers and young people participating in the Erasmus+ programme (see EUROPE 12354/15, 12349/7). The United Kingdom was the only country to abstain.
These measures are conditional on the UK paying its share of the EU budget. The regulation extends to the end of 2020 the previous emergency plan that was restricted to 2019. The measure includes programmes such as Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, and agricultural and regional policies.
The British rebate. In a joint statement, a group of countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Slovenia) underlined that, in the absence of a withdrawal agreement, two articles from the Own Resources Decision will cease to apply as from the date the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU, “thus bringing to an end to the UK rebate and the rebates on the UK rebate”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)