The leaders of the European Union's member states are resuming their negotiations, suspended this morning (8 February), on the Union's long-term budget.
For the first time in EU history, the next budget, for 2014-20, is set to shrink compared to the previous cycle (2007-13).
In the early hours of this morning, they had agreed on an overall headline figure of €960 billion in commitments (the amount available to be pledged for future spending) and €908.4bn in payments.
The low ceiling for payments – the actual cash transfers to pay for EU policies and administration – is certain to provoke skepticism or outright anger from the European Parliament, whose consent is required for any deal struck today to take effect.
Bilateral meetings resumed around 1pm today, with a first plenary session scheduled at 2.30pm to discuss the specifics of proposed spending – an issue that for many of them is more important than the headline figures.
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Go to the Content Tuesday, 21 May 2013
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