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Roundup: EP amendments for EU 2017 budget rejected by members

Xinhua, October 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Council of European Union (EU) Wednesday informed the European Parliament (EP) that it cannot accept all its amendments for the 2017 EU budget, triggering a three-week conciliation period starting this Friday to bridge their differences.

The Council consisting of representatives from EU member states adopted a draft budget for 2017 in September, setting the total level of commitments at 156.38 billion euros and payments at 133.79 billion euros.

However, the EP asked for total commitments to be increased to 162.42 billion euros and total payments to 138.03 billion euros.

According to a statement released by the Council, the conciliation committee will meet on November 8 and 16. If no deal is found by the end of the conciliation period on November 17, the European Commission, EU's executive body, has to present a new draft budget for 2017.

The Council stressed that there are some main challenges in reaching a deal between the two institutions on the 2017 EU budget.

It argued that EP's requiring level of commitment is way above the expenditure ceilings set by EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020.

"This would seriously hamper the EU's ability to react to unforeseen needs," the statement said.

Furthermore, the Council doubted that, if the payments increase as EP wants, the members will be forced to provide contributions over and above what is necessary at a time when they are struggling to consolidate their public finances.

Besides, the EP asked to reopen the agreement on financing the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which move was rejected by the EU member states.

This would reduce the EU's financial leeway for meeting unexpected needs for research and other future orientated expenditure, said the statement.

The EU institutions have made commitments to reduce their staff by 5 percent by 2017. However, the EP wanted to limit the reduction of its staff to a level that falls well short of this target.

The Council criticized EP for undermining the credibility of the institution and of the EU as a whole.

The two institutions share the same objectives for the 2017 EU budget: to enable the EU to address the migration crisis, reinforce security, boost growth and create jobs, said Ivan Lesay, Slovak finance ministry state secretary.

Lesay added that he is confident to be able to find a deal through conciliation. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollars) Endit