23 October 2013

ECOFIN Council: Start of the conciliation talks on the EU budget 2014

The Council informed the EP that it cannot approve all its amendments for the 2014 EU draft budget. This means that a three-week conciliation period will start from 24 October, aimed at bridging the gap between the divergent EP and Council positions.

The 2014 EU budget is the first under the multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2014-2020. The Council's position, as adopted on 2 September1, is guided by the following three objectives:

1. Priority should be given to programmes and actions designed to put Europe back on the track of sustainable growth and jobs;
2. The budget level should be in line with Member States' financing capacities and match their budgetary consolidation efforts; particular emphasis should be laid on keeping administrative expenditure under control;
3. Sufficient margins should be left under the ceilings of the multiannual financial framework in order to enable the EU to cope with unforeseen situations.

Against this background, the Council regrets the European Parliament's request to increase the level of appropriations beyond the draft budget proposed by the Commission, hereby drastically reducing or in certain cases even exhausting or exceeding the margins available under the MFF ceiling.

The Council's position amounts to €135.00 billion in payments (€134.80 billion if special instruments outside the MFF are excluded) and €142.23 billion in commitments (€141.77 billion when excluding special instruments outside the MFF).

The European Parliament asked to increase the payments to €136.44 billion in payments (€136.08 billion if special instruments outside MFF are excluded) and €143.08 billion in commitments (€142.63 when excluding special instruments outside the MFF).

The Commission proposed €136.07 billion in payments (€135.87 billion) and €142.47 billion in commitments (€142.01 billion).

Conciliation will also cover:

• amending letter no 1 for 2014 (13822/13) which adapts the draft budget for 2014 to take into account the political agreement on the MFF 2014-2020 (notably by frontloading commitments for Horizon 2020, Erasmus and COSME) and to increase the financial support to Cyprus under the structural funds by €100 million;
• amending letter no 2 for 2014 (15054/13) which updates the draft budget for 2014 with regard to agricultural expenditure, international fisheries agreements and administrative expenditure reducing the overall commitments and payments by €4.9 million.

If no agreement is reached by the end of the conciliation period on 13 November, the Commission must submit a new draft budget.

Press release

© European Council