Commission proposes new budget for 2013
Lewandowski seeks small cuts in bid to unblock negotiations between MEPs and member states.
Janusz Lewandowski, the European commissioner for financial programming and budget, has presented a new proposal for the European Union’s 2013 budget after member states objected to his first spending plan for next year.
The latest proposal seeks €137.8 billion in payments – down by €126.8 million, or 0.9%, from the initial plan, which was unveiled in April. Proposed commitments are up by around the same figure, to €151.1bn.
Of the proposed reductions, around €40m each come from farm aid and rural development, external relations, and administration.
The member states had been seeking to limit payments in 2013 to €132.7bn.
The proposal will be discussed by MEPs, diplomats from the member states and European Commission officials tomorrow (28 November). If the talks go smoothly, the European Parliament’s budgets committee could endorse a compromise at its meeting on 3 December, paving the way for the budget’s adoption by the Council of Ministers and MEPs at the Strasbourg plenary session on 10-13 December.
Talks between the three sides collapsed without agreement on 13 November, the last day on which a deal on the initial budget was possible under EU rules.
The most contentious issue at the time was not the €5bn gap between the positions of the member states on the one hand and the Commission and the Parliament on the other, but a Commission request for a €9bn top-up of the 2012 budget.
The member states calling for budget restraint – the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, and to a lesser extent Austria and Finland – do not hold a blocking minority in the Council of Ministers unless they are joined by Germany or France. Unlike the EU’s multi-annual financial framework, which is adopted by unanimity, the annual budget requires the backing of a weighted majority of member states.
MEPs want to have clarity over the fate of the top-up request before engaging in negotiations on the 2013 budget.
If no agreement is struck before the end of the year, the 2012 budget will be applied on a monthly basis from 1 January, with adjustments for inflation. With all adopted amendments, the current budget is €129.8bn.
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