Tentative agreement reached on EU’s seven-year budget

Tentative agreement has been reached on the EU's seven- year budget, with Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and the European Parliament's chief negotiator Alain Lamassoure agreeing on a joint text.

The agreement between the two lead negotiators on the multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) was reached this evening in Brussels, but it must now gain the support of member states at next week's General Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg as well as MEP's at the European Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg early next month.

In a sign of continuing resistance among some MEP’s towards the package, Bulgarian MEP Ivailo Kalfin said the agreed package was “far from” the original Parliament’s position. The key issue for the successful passage of the deal will be whether Alain Lamassoure can gain the support of the European People’s Party (EPP) and Social and Democratic (S&D) political groups, the largest in the Parliament.

Speaking this evening, Mr Gilmore said that reaching this point of agreement was "very significant." "I think it is very good day for Europe. Agreeing a budget, either at a national level or at an international level, is always very difficult. This one is particularly complex," the Tánaiste said. "What we've ended up with is, is a balanced set of proposals."

The package addresses all four of the issues identified by the European Parliament, the Tanaiste added. This includes provisions on greater flexibility, a commitment to examine the issue of an ‘own resources’ income stream for the European Union’s budget on a six monthly basis, and a commitment to increase the transparency of the budget.

The agreed package also proposes a compulsory review of the budget in 2016 to take account of the views of the new European Parliament that will be in situ after 2014.

Under the agreed package, the European Commission will be obliged to present a review of the budget by the end of 2016, taking account of the economic situation and economic forecasts for Europe at that time.

The Tánaiste will now present the agreed package to EU ministers at next week’s meeting of the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg.

Asked if he was confident of securing the support of member states for the agreed package, the Tánaiste said: “I know that he member states are interested to ensure that there is a MFF. The idea of having a seven year budget is important for member states to do the planning that is necessary.”

Securing agreement on the EU’s seven-year budget has been a key priority of the Irish presidency of the European Council which is now entering its final ten days.

Irish ministers will chair a number of key EU meetings in the coming days in Luxembourg, including Friday’s meeting of finance ministers, and a key meeting on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy early next week in Luxembourg. The Irish presidency will culminate with the EU summit next Thursday and Friday in Brussels.

Reaching agreement on the budget is necessary to unlock almost €1 trillion in EU funding, and Irish officials have been leading negotiations with MEP’s, on behalf of the Council since February.

The proposed €960 billion budget for 2014 to 2020, which was finally agreed by European heads of states in February, represents about 3 per cent less in real terms than the existing budget, and well below the €1.033 trillion ceiling proposed by the European Commission in July 2011. Following calls from some member states, including Britain to reduce the cost of the budget, it represents the first ever cut to the EU budget.

Under new powers brought in by the Lisbon Treaty, the support of the European Parliament was needed to endorse the multi-annual budget.