The delicate negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the regulation establishing the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for 2021-2027, will resume on Thursday 11 March, more than a month after the previous interinstitutional meeting (see EUROPE 12642/6).
In view of this deadline, the ambassadors of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) approved a revised negotiating mandate on Wednesday 10 March, a diplomatic source confirmed to EUROPE.
According to a note from the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, sent to the Member States on Friday 5 March and copied to EUROPE, it would appear that Lisbon intends to “conclude all remaining political and horizontal issues at this trilogue, thus aiming at an overall agreement”.
Several delegations have also stressed the need to conclude negotiations with Parliament as soon as possible.
According to this note, the Presidency obtained the agreement of the national delegations on the points on which provisional compromises had been reached at the previous interinstitutional meeting on 22 January.
But the sticking points on which negotiations have been stalled for several months—the key to allocating the cohesion envelope and the earmarking of part of the ‘Transport’ envelope for the Rail Baltica project (see EUROPE 12620/15)—remain.
On the first point, the Council of the EU is expected to present a new formulation. On the second, it should propose a compromise and table a draft joint statement by the EU Council and the Commission. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)