A package deal comprising the 2014 EU budget and the financing of EUR 400.5 million to remediate flood and drought damages in four member states was agreed today by the Council and the European Parliament at a meeting of the Conciliation Committee.
The agreement on the 2014 EU budget, which is the first under the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020, meets three objectives: it preserves member states` budgets from additional pressure which might force them to strengthen their consolidation efforts at national level by setting the level of funds significantly below the 2013 budget; it leaves sufficient margins under the MFF ceilings to allow the EU to cope with unforeseen situations; it ensures that European taxpayers` money is spent on the most urgent political priorities, notably on measures to boost growth and create jobs, in particular for young people.
"I believe that today`s agreement on the 2014 EU budget is a good start for the new programming period", said Vice-Minister for Finance of Lithuania and President of the Council Algimantas Rimkunas.
"I`m glad that we could reach an agreement with the European Parliament on the financing of priority areas such as growth, employment, innovation and humanitarian aid. We also agreed to reinforce the financing on migration, FRONTEX, the European Asylum Support Office, Europol and the three supervisory authorities which are important for the proper implementation of the Economic and Monetary Union," he noted.
Overall payments have been set at EUR 135.50 billion. This represents a decrease of 9.4% compared to 2013 (including all additional funds agreed by the Council and the European Parliament in the course of this year) and leaves a margin of EUR 711.4 million under the MFF ceiling.
Overall commitments amount to EUR 142.64 billion, which is 9.5% below the EU budget for 2013 and leaves a margin of EUR 445.4 million. Next year`s budget contains EUR 64.0 billion in commitments and EUR 62.4 billion in payments to support smart and inclusive growth. Further EUR 59.3 in commitments and EUR 56.5 in payments will be available for measures aimed at sustainable growth. As far as individual programmes are concerned, the 2014 EU budget includes EUR 9.0 billion in commitments and EUR 6.0 billion in payments for the research framework programme Horizon 2020, EUR 3.9 billion in commitments and EUR 900 million in payments to kick-start the Youth Employment Initiative and EUR 920 million in commitments and EUR 785 million in payments for humanitarian aid including for victims of the Syrian civil war and Lampedusa refugees.
The package deal also covers draft amending budget no 9 for 2013 which is about repairing damages caused by floods in Germany (EUR 360.5 million), Austria (EUR 21.7 million) and the Czech Republic (EUR 15.9 million) and drought in Romania (EUR 2.5 million). The compromise found provides for the mobilisation of EUR 400.5 million out of the EU solidarity fund in two tranches: EUR 250 million will be financed by redeployments in the 2013 budget and the remaining EUR 150 million in 2014.
The Council is expected to formally approve the agreement on the 2014 budget and on draft amending budget no 9 on 19 November and the European Parliament on 20 November.
