On Monday 6 January, Irena Andrassy, Permanent Representative of Croatia to the EU, whose country holds the Presidency of the EU Council, stressed the need to make progress in the negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the 2021-2027 period (see also other news in this bulletin).
“We really want to move this issue forward. There's not much time (...) And there’s no time to lose”, she explained to the press, reminding them that the first programmes should start in a year's time.
“The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, has taken responsibility for the negotiations on the negotiating box (negobox), but we are going to help him in different ways and at different levels”, including at the General Affairs Council, Ms Andrassy said. However, the Presidency will be responsible for legislative acts related to the MFF.
“The MFF will say a lot about what the EU is, what its ambitions are for the next 7 years, what Member States want the EU to do and what they want to do themselves”, she explained, pointing out that it was “not all about money”. According to her, a balance will have to be found between the Commission's proposal, “conservative” states and “those who want to have the largest possible MFF to manage all the challenges (...)”.
While the Croatian representative hoped for a breakthrough during her country's Presidency of the EU Council, the next few weeks look like they will be difficult. At the end of December, the European Parliament decided to suspend a large part of the negotiations with the Council on the programmes related to the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12395/3).
Ms Andrassy admitted that she was “quite surprised” by this decision. She explained that she was in contact with the Parliament, and she was hoping to have greater clarity on the situation in the next few days, now that the Christmas break is over.
While there is a margin of discretion to negotiate on the technical level, the Croatian Presidency also hopes to make progress on the political level regarding the legislative matters which have already been committed to in the interinstitutional negotiations, despite the decision of the European Parliament, we are told.
The suspension imposed by the European Parliament would concern no less than 45 legislative texts, according to the Croatian Presidency's estimations. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Pascal Hansens)