16 July 2013

Lithuanian Presidency reaches Council agreement on EU annual budget for 2014

EU Member States on July 15 have reached agreement at technical level on the Council’s position on the draft EU budget for 2014, the first annual budget under the new multiannual financial framework. The agreement under the Lithuanian EU Council presidency was supported by a large majority of Member States and goes to the EU ambassadors on July 18 for political approval.

“This is the first major achievement of the Lithuanian Presidency and it took extremely short time to reach consensus. I am very proud of my team at the Budget Committee”, said ambassador Raimundas Karoblis, Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the EU and President of Coreper II.

In absolute figures, the Council’s position amounts to €141.8 billion in commitments and €134.8 billion in payments.

Particular emphasis was put to ensure that sufficient margins are left to deal with unforeseen circumstances whilst allowing the financing of the EU priorities, notably in the fields of youth employment, research, SMEs etc.

“The Lithanian Presidency has put growth and jobs at the core of its priorities. We also have the political commitment by the heads of EU Member States and governments to prioritise measures on youth employment. I am very satisfied that the Council‘s position on EU annual budget addresses these issues well”, ambassador Karoblis said.

Compared to the amounts proposed by the Commission, the Council decreased the payments by a total of €1.06 billion and commitments by €0.24 billion. Reductions are targeted at budget lines which have been chosen after a thorough examination of the budget implementation in recent years and using realistic absorption capacities. The Council made a special effort to limit the increase in EU administrative spending to 0.28 per cent in commitments and 0.30 per cent in payments compared to 2013.

The Council’s position, which is due to be formally adopted by written procedure ending on 2 September, will serve as a mandate to the Lithuanian Presidency to negotiate the next year’s EU budget with the European Parliament later this year. The Parliament is expected to adopt its position at the end of October.

Press release

© Lithuanian Presidency