On Wednesday 14 July, the EU Member States endorsed the EU Council’s initial position on the EU draft budget plan for 2022.
An agreement was reached and confirmed on Wednesday at the level of the Committee of Member States’ Representatives to the EU (Coreper) on a 2022 draft budget plan of €167.6 billion in commitment appropriations and €169.9 billion in payment appropriations. The total amount of payment appropriations foreseen in the EU Council’s position on DB 2022 corresponds to 1.14% of the EU’s gross national income (GNI).
In order to avoid higher increases than in 2021 and to ensure a realistic capacity to absorb funds, the Council of the EU proposes that part of the financing of certain budget lines be carried over to the second part of the period of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
The EU Council also underlines that the administrative expenditure of the 2022 budget, in particular as regards the level of staff resources, should be in line with the MFF agreement.
Of the total expenditure of the MFF headings for 2022, the EU Council reduced commitments by €1.4 billion and payments by €724.4 million compared to the Commission’s draft presented on 9 June. Reductions mainly concern the headings ‘neighbourhood and world’ (-€500 million in commitments) and ‘single market, innovation and digital’ (-€425 million in commitments).
The EU Council will formally adopt its position by written procedure by 6 September. Parliament will adopt its position in October. If the positions of the two institutions diverge, the 21-day conciliation period will start on 26 October and end on 15 November. If the EU Council and the European Parliament do not reach an agreement on the 2022 budget by the end of this period, the Commission will propose a second draft budget plan.
Link to the EU Council’s position on the 2022 draft budget plan: https://bit.ly/2ULUjvE (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)