The budget issue is expected to be the last major point of agreement between the European Parliament and the EU Council at the next interinstitutional meeting on the regulation establishing the Secure Connectivity Constellation on Thursday 17 November.
“Now, the big issue raised in the first dialogue, of course, as you can imagine, is the budget”, Martina Dlabajová (Renew Europe, Czech) told the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) on Monday 14 November.
In the MEP’s view, who was speaking on behalf of the rapporteur, Christophe Grudler (Renew Europe, French), “fresh money” needs to be put forward. The European Parliament believes margins and decommitments should be used as much as possible to avoid drawing directly on the funds of the Horizon Europe framework programme and the EU space programme.
However, the EU Council remains reluctant. Last Friday, the Czech Presidency of the EU Council obtained a new mandate (see EUROPE 13058/9) from the national delegations to resume negotiations with the European Parliament. “The Member States supported the flexible approach proposed by the Presidency, but reiterated their reluctance to use the margins and decommitments from Horizon Europe”, a diplomatic source confirmed. On the other hand, there could be possible flexibilities to use budgetary margins. The frugal States (including Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria) are believed to have been the most rigid on the issue of margins, but “it will all depend on the amounts”, another source told us.
Thus, the way to reach an agreement on the budget negotiations could be regarding the margins rather than the decommitments of the Horizon Europe framework programme, a third source told us.
The aim is to come to a provisional political agreement at this Thursday’s meeting, before the ESA ministerial meeting, as confirmed by several sources and Ms Dlabajová in committee. However, “if Member States are not flexible enough on margins and commitments, there will be no deal on Thursday”, warned the MEP. This position was reiterated at the meeting of rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs on Thursday 10 November.
The European Space Agency
The question of the role of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Constellation architecture has been decided, according to several sources. In its original mandate, the EU Council had introduced the possibility for ESA to participate in the Constellation through these optional programmes, while obliging the European Commission to assign tasks, notably in terms of development, to ESA.
On the other hand, the Commission and the European Parliament did not want to bind the EU to ESA, as ESA does not have the same Member States as the European Union. There were therefore concerns that ESA would have control over the choice of consortium partners, which could potentially have come from a third state (such as the UK). A formulation is believe to have been eventually found to protect the essential security interests of the EU and its Member States. To view the Czech Presidency of the EU Council’s document: https://aeur.eu/f/421 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)