The European Parliament and the EU Council reached an interim political agreement on Monday 14 December at their fifth interinstitutional meeting on the European Defence Fund.
The EDF had already been the subject of a partial agreement in February 2019 (see EUROPE 12198/22) on the general objectives and structure of the Fund, but budgetary and horizontal issues remained outstanding.
Subject to final confirmation in the context of the negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework and related programmes, the fund will have a financial envelope of EUR 7.953 billion in current prices: This includes EUR 2.651 billion for research and EUR 5.302 billion for development actions. The EU will provide financial support for projects involving at least three participants from three European or associated countries.
At their meeting, Parliament and the Council of the EU agreed on the two remaining issues: whether or not to maintain the possibility of reallocating unused funds from other programmes to the EDF (Article 4.5 of the Regulation) and the date on which the Regulation will end.
On the first point, Parliament obtained the elimination of the possibility of reallocating funds to the EDF. While the EU Council considered that this reallocation could make it possible to compensate for some of the losses of funds allocated to the EDF under the Multiannual Financial Framework, Parliament did not support this reallocation on a subject as sensitive as defence, according to one source.
On the second point, a European source explained that the EU Council wanted an end date for the programme in order to avoid legal uncertainty regarding the functioning of the regulation, whereas Parliament was afraid that this would limit the possibilities for budgetary negotiations in seven years’ time. It was finally decided that the Fund would be implemented during the same period as the MFF, i.e. from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2027.
However, this source explained that a sentence would be added to the Regulation specifying that the operation of the Fund should be aligned with the implementation of the current MFF. “If there is a deadlock in the budget negotiations in seven years’ time, and if there is a vote to extend the whole financial framework, then EDF funding will be extended automatically, so there will be no need to negotiate on this particular point”, the source explained.
The EU Council and Parliament still have to formally approve the negotiated text. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)