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The Institute for European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel kindly invites you for a Policy Forum on "The EU Budget for 2014-2020: Major Reform or Status Quo?". The format will be a lunch seminar with three speakers representing the three budgetary authorities of the European Union:
- European Parliament: Mr Ivailo Kalfin (Rapporteur for the MFF Regulation, S&D)
- Council of the EU: Mrs Agnieszka Bartol (Secretariat General)
- European Commission: Mr Patrizio Fiorilli (Spokesperson, Cabinet of Janusz Lewandowski - the Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget)
The battle over the EU multiannual budget seemed to have no end. The initial political agreement reached in June and the Parliament's Resolution adopted in July did not bring the positions of the negotiating institutions close enough to announce a deal. After the summer break, the dispute between the Parliament and the Council flared up yet again.
The very difficult conditions to reach an agreement became even more complicated with the inclusion of outstanding payments from the 2013 budget and agreement on the annual budget for 2014 to the list of negotiated issues. The adoption of the Multiannual Financial Framework has been postponed to the very last moment and it took place in November finally.
The intention of the Policy Forum organisers is to discuss several issues related to the budgetary negotiations and their results as well as to the future of the EU budget.
The representatives of the three negotiating institutions will be asked to give their answers to the following questions:
- Why did the negotiations take so long?
- How powerful were the institutions in the consent procedure?
- Does the multiannual financial planning structure facilitate reaching agreements on the annual budgets?
- What has been achieved during the negotiation process?
- To what extent the EU budget has changed?
- Size and priorities, duration, flexibility, own resources system, instruments in support of better spending.
- Which aspects of the budget should be reformed in the future?
You will find information on registration and venue on: http://www.ies.be/policy-forum/eu-budget-2014-2020-major-reform-or-status-quo
