The Council wants the EU’s budget to continue to focus on strengthening the European economy and boosting its competitiveness.
Other priorities include ensuring sufficient funding for migration and the protection of the EU’s external borders, strengthening civil protection, tackling climate change and providing adequate resources for external action in line with the EU’s strategic interests.
As in previous years, member states also insist on budgetary prudence and discipline. They want to ensure sufficient leeway in the budget to allow the EU to react to unforeseen needs.
More funding compared to 2019 is foreseen, for instance, for Horizon 2020, Europe’s satellite navigation systems EGNOS and Galileo, the energy strand of the Connection Europe Facility, Erasmus+ and the European Defence Industrial Development Programme.
Overall, the draft Council position foresees an amount of €166.8 billion in commitment appropriations and €153.1 billion in payment appropriations. This is an increase of +0.6 % in commitments and +3.3 % in payments when compared to the budget voted in 2019.
Next steps
State Secretary Tiilikainen will present the Council’s position on the 2020 EU budget to the European Parliament at the September plenary. The EP is expected to adopt its amendments to the Council’s position on 23 October.
This will trigger a three-week conciliation period, which will start on 29 October and end on 18 November. The aim of this conciliation process is to reach an agreement between the Council and the European Parliament on the 2020 EU budget.
The draft amending budgets to the 2019 EU budget are expected to be adopted by the EP plenary in September and October.