Council adopts the multiannual financial framework 2014-2020

02 December 2013

This decision marks the end of two-and-a-half years of negotiations and allows the new generation of EU spending programmes to be implemented as from 1 January, 2014.

The MFF regulation enables the European Union to spend up to €959.99 billion in commitments and €908.40 billion in payments over the next seven years. This is 3.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively less than under the MFF 2007-2013, ensuring budgetary discipline for the EU and reflecting the particular budgetary pressure that Member States currently face at national level.

The Council today also approved

• the interinstitutional agreement (IIA) on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and sound financial management; this agreement is aimed at facilitating the annual budgetary procedure and to complement the provisions of the MFF regulation, notably on the special instruments outside the multiannual financial framework (11838/13);
• the statements forming part of the political agreement reached on the MFF at the end of June (15997/13 ADD 1).

The MFF regulation and the IIA set out in legal terms the political agreement reached between the Council and the European Parliament on 27 June 2013. The expenditure limits for the next seven years are the same as in the European Council's conclusions of 8 February 2013 (37/13 + COR 1; summary of the conclusions), and on four issues (flexibility, review/revision, unity of the budget and own resources) the texts address the European Parliament's requests (for details see 11732/13).

For the MFF starting in 2021 the Commission will have to present a proposal before 1 January 2018 and examine aligning it with the political cycles of the institutions.

Press release

See also: Main results of the Competitiveness Council

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