The Council of the EU will meet in public session on Friday 15 November at 9.30am to prepare for the second meeting of the Conciliation Committee on the EU’s annual budget for 2025.
The Conciliation Committee meeting with the European Parliament will begin at 11am, with the aim of reaching an agreement. Negotiations will end on Monday 18 November.
The Hungarian Presidency of the EU referred to “a substantial difference in commitments”, with a gap of more than €2.76 billion between the position of the European Parliament and that of the EU Council. It added that this situation was “completely normal” at this stage of the negotiations.
The Hungarian Presidency is advocating “caution”, believing that the position adopted by the Council of the EU in July (see EUROPE 13455/8) is “a good starting point for negotiations with the European Parliament”.
In its position adopted on 23 October (see EUROPE 13510/1), the European Parliament called for increased funding for several “essential programmes” such as Erasmus+, EU4Health and Cluster Health under the Horizon Europe research framework programme, as well as for agricultural programmes and the Civil Protection Mechanism.
In the European Parliament’s view, the increased costs of reimbursing the European Recovery Plan post-Covid-19 must not lead to cuts in programme funding.
On Wednesday 13 November, the European Commission proposed an initial compromise to bridge the gap between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)