Representatives of the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission met during the evening of Wednesday 28 October in order to make progress towards an agreement on the economic recovery plan and the EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12589/6, 12587/20).
At the tenth meeting on these matters, the European Parliament again asked for the €12.9 billion to repay the money borrowed for the Recovery Plan to be accounted for outside the MFF ceilings.
Battle over the programmes. On Wednesday, members of the European Parliament Committee on Budgets stressed the importance of convincing the Council of the EU to place the €12.9 billion in interest payments owed under the recovery plan outside the ceilings in the MFF.
Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe, France) believes this solution would both secure additional funds for EU programmes and preserve future MFFs. “This is currently €12.9 billion in interest to be repaid over seven years, but from 2028 onwards, €15 to €25 billion will have to be repaid every year”.
José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Portugal) said that interest over the period 2021-2027 would represent 0.01% of the budget, “but this will be more than 10% after 2028”. “If the EU budget repays the debt, that will mean a 10% reduction for EU programmes from 2028. This is a serious situation”, Fernandes said.
Own resources. The European Parliament obtained an interinstitutional agreement on inclusion of a binding timetable for including new revenues.
There are still differences with the Council of the EU on the dates for including ETS revenues (the European Parliament is calling for the ETS to be included in the EU budget from January 2021) and the financial transaction tax (the European Parliament is calling for it to be included from 1 January 2024).
The European Parliament is calling for agreement on ‘rule of law’ conditionality (see other news). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)