On Wednesday 30 October, the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council submitted a new draft declaration to the Member States ahead of the European Summit in Budapest on 8 November. In this version, dated 29 October, the authors have taken into account a number of comments made by the EU27 on the previous version, which had been widely criticised (see EUROPE 13512/3). At a meeting of the Member States’ permanent representatives to the EU on Wednesday evening, they made a second round of comments similar to the first. For most member countries, the text is still too long and should not go into detail on the various subjects. Some delegations even found the latest version worse than the previous one, according to one source. At the end of the meeting on Wednesday, the continuation of discussions on the text promised to be long and difficult, according to three European diplomats.
Among the changes, the language on the Capital Markets Union (CMU) had been extensively amended to remove the concrete measures that had been proposed. However, these went no further than the conclusions of the European Council of April 2024 (see EUROPE 13394/1). The aim was to “make swift progress, in particular” on: - harmonising relevant aspects of national corporate insolvency frameworks; - relaunching the European securitisation market; - improving the convergence and efficiency of the supervision of capital markets across the EU.
The latest version of the declaration retains only the idea that “further coordination in relation to tax matters would also increase our European competitiveness and growth”.
As the Member States’ comments concerned the budget, this passage was adjusted as well. The title no longer refers to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), but to “Funding Fit for the Future”. This passage now goes further than just the framework of public investment and includes the need to attract private investment, as well as the increased involvement of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The previous version referred only to the MFF and called for New Own Resources. This last point is maintained in the proposed measures, as is the idea to “explore the possibility of developing new tools and instruments at the EU level”.
According to one source, the mention of new own resources and new tools still poses a problem for several Member States, who feel that such guidelines have no place at an informal summit.
The part of the declaration on energy has also been amended to take account of the comments made by the EU27. According to the latest version of the declaration, the leaders should undertake to “accelerate permitting procedures for renewables and low-carbon energy infrastructure”.
High energy prices were also taken into account, and the heads of state or government are expected to “call for urgent measures” to deal with this situation.
To see the draft declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/e32 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with Pauline Denys and Mathieu Bion)