The Council of EU Economy and Finance Ministers (Ecofin) will meet on Friday 12 November in Brussels to try to seal a deal with the European Parliament on the EU budget for 2022.
The Ecofin Council (budget session) will first prepare the meeting of the Conciliation Committee with the European Parliament which will take place the same day. The Conciliation Committee will try to bridge the gap between the EU Council and Parliament positions on the EU 2022 budget and agree on a common text.
After the Conciliation Committee meeting, the Council of the EU will meet again either to approve the compromise between the institutions or to decide on the next steps in case of non-agreement with Parliament. The three-week reconciliation period ends on 15 November at midnight.
The positions of the EU institutions are quite different (see EUROPE 12817/15).
The Commission had expected a total for 2022 of €167.8 billion in commitments and €169.4 billion in payments. The EU Council on 6 September forecast commitments of €167.7 billion and payments of €170 billion. Parliament on 20 October called for a total of €171.8 billion in commitments and €172.5 billion in payments.
Parliament is thus proposing €4.1 billion more in commitment appropriations and €2.5 billion more in payment appropriations than the EU countries are advocating. The EU Council rejects the full use of margins in almost all budget headings, as well as the massive use of special instruments requested by Parliament.
Parliament has suggested increases in funding (compared to the Commission’s draft) for several programmes, including: Horizon Europe (+€305 million), the Connecting Europe Facility (+€207 million), Erasmus+ (+€137 million), and EU4Health (+€80 million).
The debates should also address the following Parliament’s demands:
– €486 million as a result of ‘decommitments’ (research funds) under Article 15(3) of the Financial Regulation. The EU Council is reluctant to use this article and prefers to postpone the proposed amount to the second part of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) period;
– creation of a separate budget line under the European Social Fund + to provide a special additional envelope for the implementation of the ‘European Child Guarantee’ (+€700 million). The EU Council considers that Parliament does not respect the agreements already reached on the MFF.
In addition, Parliament proposed to place €90 million of Frontex expenditure in a reserve. These funds would be released once recruitment conditions are met. The Council of the EU had planned to place €45 million of the Frontex budget in reserve.
The Committee on Budgets will discuss its position on Tuesday, before a Budget 2022 trilogue on Thursday 11 November. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)