The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, is finalising his compromise proposal on the EU’s multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027, which is due to be presented on Thursday 13 or Friday 14 February (see EUROPE 12421/1).
The new ‘negotiating box’ on the next MFF could be discussed on Friday 14 February by EU ambassadors (Coreper), before a debate on Monday 17 February at the EU General Affairs Council. These discussions will allow the best possible preparation for the European Council meeting on 20 February, devoted to the negotiations on the next MFF.
Charles Michel continued his consultations on Wednesday 12 February through video conferences with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Cypriot President Níkos Anastasiádis, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. Charles Michel will have met with the 27 Heads of State or Government to discuss this issue.
The European Parliament ready to go all the way. David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, said on Wednesday 12 February in Strasbourg that the European Parliament stood ready to “go all the way” to defend its priorities and prerogatives over the MFF. He opposed a cut in funding for cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy and called for “sufficient” funding for the European ‘Green Deal’. Parliament will not give up its ambitions, its President warned. He said he hoped “that no EU government will bank on a failure of the new European Commission”.
He criticised the “insufficient” Finnish project (1.07% of the EU’s gross national income), which represents a difference of €240 billion from the needs identified by Parliament. Mr Sassoli felt it was necessary to “reconsider the rebates” and found it “unbearable” that this subject should be used as pretext for certain countries to “refuse generosity towards the EU”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)