Unpaid claims sink EU budget talks

Parliament wants to reduce the growing pile of unpaid bills, while Council’s proposal, revealed on the very last day of the budget talks, only aggravates the payment crisis, budget MEPs said after conciliation discussions between member states and the Parliament broke down Monday night (17 November). The Commission will now present a new draft budget.

“We must have a concrete response to the unbearable problem of unpaid invoices accumulating on the desks of the Commission. This puts into danger the credibility of the EU authority and feeds the arguments of Europhobes,” said Jean Arthuis (ALDE, FR), the leader of the parliamentary delegation.

Payments, again

“How credible can an EU be which tells member states to control their public spending and yet it puts entrepreneurs, researchers, Erasmus students in difficulty by not honouring its commitments,” Arthuis asked.

During the negotiations that lasted until the deadline at midnight, Parliament could not accept the Council stance that would halve the sum the Commission asked for to pay the most urgent bills, in order to stop the snowballing of unpaid claims. The Commission has repeatedly said that the €4.7 billion requested in May was the bare minimum for that purpose.

Windfall revenue should pay debt

Parliament wants to use the exceptional windfall revenues of €5bn coming from fines to settle some of the most urgent bills. Yet member states declared their preference to channel back the extra income to their national budgets.

Flexible resources

Parliament also wants to secure that aid funds worth €11bn between 2014-2020 for natural disasters, mass redundancies and humanitarian crises remain available in addition to - and not included in, as Council says - the amounts agreed to in the EU’s seven-year budget framework.

Parliament wants to see a road map drawn up with a precise schedule for reducing the mountain of unpaid bills.

Late Council position

“The conciliation that started three weeks ago suffers from hemiplegia, where one part of the budgetary body has not been functioning,” Arthuis added.

Parliament received Council’s negotiating position on the very last day of a three-week period, which should have served to conciliate the diverging positions to arrive at a workable budget for the Union.

Next step

With no agreement closing the budget conciliation process, the European Commission will have to present a new draft budget, re-launching the budget procedure. If there is no deal on the 2015 budget by 1 January 2015, the Union will run on one twelfth of the previous year’s amount each month.

EP statement after failed conciliation meeting (14.11.2014)
EP position on Council’s reading of the budget 2015 (22.10.2014)

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