The EU Council plans to place the upcoming negotiations on the 2011 budget in the dual context of the economic crisis, the effects of which are still being felt, and the new annual budget procedure introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon, which will be applied for the first time.

The economy and finance ministers will adopt their budget guidelines for 2011, on 16 March in Brussels. In the draft conclusions drawn up by the Budget Committee, the member states point out that most of them find themselves in an excessive deficit procedure. The EU general budget in 2011 will therefore “more than ever” have to take into account “economic and budgetary constraints at national level”. It will be essential to continue implementing programmes at EU level to cope with the effects of the crisis and to make “reallocations” to allow the best possible use of available funds.

SINGLE-READING PROCEDURE

On implementation of the treaty, the Council highlights the importance of “good collaboration between the two arms of the budgetary authority”. The new treaty brings about major changes since the Council and Parliament are now on an equal footing for all expenditure headings and each has only a single reading of the draft budget. Agreement has to be reached during the conciliation procedure. The draft conclusions note that the two institutions should therefore “coordinate their positions as early as possible during the procedure”. They will also have to come to agreement on the functioning of the conciliation procedure before the beginning of the 2011 budgetary exercise, which starts on 28 April with the Commission’s presentation of the draft budget (which is no longer a preliminary draft).

The other main elements of the Council’s guidelines emphasise measures contributing to economic recovery, particularly in the field of research and innovation (competitiveness, sub-heading 1a). On cohesion (sub-heading 1b), since payments under the Structural and Cohesion Funds are expected to reach cruising speed in 2010-2011, the Council urges the Commission and member states to “maintain this momentum” to avoid under-implementation of funds. Concerning the common agricultural policy (heading 2), it expects “realistic forecasts” and on citizenship, freedom, security and justice (heading 3) it points out the importance of allocating “sufficient resources” to policies such as immigration.

For external actions (heading 4), the 2011 budget will have to be adapted to the EU’s ambitions, particularly for its External Action Service, which “should be guided by the principle of cost-efficiency aiming towards budget neutrality”. For administrative spending (heading 5), the rule is still to increase administrative efficiency and optimise the use of limited resources, especially in the context of new tasks assigned to the institutions by the Treaty of Lisbon.

DISCIPLINE AND REALISM

More generally, the document refers as usual to strict respect for budgetary discipline and the limits set by the 2007-2013 financial framework. “Sufficient margins” will have to be left under all the ceilings of the various headings so as to be able to cope with unforeseen events. The member states also say that payment and appropriation commitments must be set to reflect the EU’s “real” needs and in a “realistic” way to avoid over-estimates and “undue pressure on national budgets”.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets adopted its own guidelines for 2011 on 4 March (see Europolitics3932). The vote in plenary is set for 25 March in Brussels.

(Draft conclusions at www.europolitics.info > Search = 268274)

Economy and finance ministers will adopt their budget guidelines for 2011, on 16 March in Brussels.