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EU Council and EP agreement on budget for 2014 and EUSF for Romania and other countries
The European Council and Parliament on the night of Monday through Tuesday reached an agreement on the EU budget for 2014, which provides an additional amount of 500 million euros of the allotment initially agreed by the member states. Moreover, the package includes an agreement on the revision of the budget for 2013 for funding the payment from the EU Solidarity Fund of the aids for floods and drought granted to Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Romania, out of which Romania will receive 2.5 million euros.
The agreement was announced on Tuesday morning by Lithuanian Finance Deputy Minister Algimantas Rimkunas and by European Commissioner for Budget Janusz Lewandowski, at the end of the Economic and Financial Council (ECOFIN).
The compromise reached provides payments worth 135.5 billion euros for the EU budget for 2014, less than the EP requested (136.4 billion euros), but over what the member states initially offered (135 billion euros), the Agerpres correspondent informs. The EU budget for 2014 would thus be 9.4 percent lower than the one of 2013, reflecting the budgetary constraints affecting the commitments of the community block.
The agreement would be submitted to voting within the future plenary sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, according to the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council. Moreover, this agreement opens the way for the EP adopting, in the same plenary sitting, the multiannual budget of the EU for the period 2014-2020.
The agreement reached also concludes the last adjustment of the rectifying budget for 2013, including the funding worth 400 million euros for the payment of the aids granted by the European Commission from the EUSF to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, for floods, and Romania, for drought and fires.
The amount will be made up of 250 million euros from unused funds in 2013, while the rest of 150 million euros will be supported from the EU budget for 2014.