MEPs and ministers to focus on 2014 budget conciliation
Conciliation talks between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have begun on the 2014 EU budget
During the first meeting of the Conciliation Committee, the Council and European Parliament both emphasised the importance of supporting jobs and economic growth. However, the Council has said it disagrees with MEPs on the extent to which the member states’ consolidation efforts at national level should be taken into account.
Striving to keep the level of the 2014 EU budget in line with member states’ financing capacities, the Council has said it wishes to limit payments to €135bn and commitments €142.23bn. This, says ministers, would also leave sufficient margins under the ceilings of the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for enabling the EU to cope with unforeseen situations. The Parliament has sought to increase the payments by €1.4bn and the commitments by €855m.
The Council has also informed the European Parliament about the formal adoption of its position on all outstanding draft amending budgets for 2013, which should allow the conciliation talks to focus on the 2014 budget. The additional funds for this year’s budget still need the Parliament’s approval in order to become available.
The draft amending budgets concerned are No. 7 (increasing the European Social Fund by €150m in commitments for France, Spain and Italy); No. 8 (delivering the second part of outstanding payment needs amounting to €3.9bn) and No. 9 (remediating the damages caused by natural disasters in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Romania and amounting to €400.5m in commitments and payments).