Several Member States have informed the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union that the political agreement in principle reached by the EU Council on Thursday 29 April on the method for allocating funds under the Brexit adjustment reserve is, in their view, a red line (see EUROPE 12709/23). Therefore, the Presidency had to be firm in its negotiations with the European Parliament.
Although the agreement received strong support from Member States, several of them - Malta, Spain, Ireland and France in particular - felt that the agreement reached on the allocation method was difficult to negotiate.
Ireland, by far the Member State most affected by the UK’s exit from the EU, is said to have accepted the deal half-heartedly, as it would reduce the financial envelope destined for it, the same going for Belgium and Malta. Hungary apparently criticised the three-step approach to disbursing funds, as the bulk of the financial effort is needed now.
For the allocation of the €5 billion in aid available, the agreement introduces a factor that did not exist in the original proposal, namely a factor linked to the population of the maritime border regions with the UK. The two-tranche approach to disbursing funds proposed by the European Commission has been removed. In addition, Member States have provided for a three-stage sharing of funds, but still using the same method of allocating funds.
On the European Parliament side, the rapporteur, Pascal Arimont (EPP, Belgium), inclines towards a rather similar solution by favouring a single distribution key for the funds. However, there are still heated exchanges between MEPs, particularly with the French MEPs, who consider the European Commission’s proposal unfair and ill-founded (see EUROPE 12705/10).
The votes for opinions are expected to take place in the Budgets and Fisheries Committees on 10 May, while the vote on the Arimont report is scheduled in the Committee on Regional Development on 25 May. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)