Negotiations with the European Parliament are going in circles, but despite this, EU leaders said on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 October in Brussels that they did not want to reopen the compromise painstakingly wrung out last July on the EU Economic Recovery Plan and the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027. Technical adjustments can be made to free up additional funds for priority EU programmes, but nothing more, they insisted.
The European Parliament is calling for an increase of €39 billion to strengthen 15 EU flagship programmes, of which €22 billion would come from new contributions from Member States (see EUROPE 12582/3).
The German Council Presidency is prepared to concede an increase of up to €9 billion without increasing the Member States' contributions, using the 'contingency margin'.
Retain the current mandate. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who holds the rotating six-month EU Council Presidency, said on Friday 16 October that her counterparts had held discussions the previous day with European Parliament President David Sassoli. “All colleagues have welcomed the negotiations with our mandate”, the Chancellor said, explaining that the July agreement must be implemented. “We have to move fast.” The MFF and the Recovery Plan go together. “In other words, it will not be possible to get a unanimous vote on the Recovery Plan unless we know exactly what the MFF figures are and, of course, the rule of law package is part of it”, Merkel said.
She felt that “we should be able to reach an agreement in the next few days or weeks”.
Do not weaken the deal. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said: “We must build the conditions for an agreement as quickly as possible”. “We can always improve the agreement, but if improving is weakening the agreement, we're not going in the right direction, we're taking risks”, he warned. The epidemic is starting up again everywhere, we are in this second wave and, in all likelihood, we will have to redefine an orchestrated response. “The appropriate thing at this point is a spirit of compromise between institutions”, Macron said.
Andrej Plenković, President of the Croatian Government, considered it important to finalise the remaining legislative steps, “to ensure that we can start using MFF and Recovery Plan funds early next year”.
Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, agreed with others that the MFF ceilings should not be raised and that there were still differences on 'rule of law' conditionality. He reiterated that his country does not support the compromise presented by the German Presidency of the Council as it does not consider it ambitious enough. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur, with editorial staff)