Name: Budget - Economic and Financial Affairs Council
Uploaded: 2026-11-10T08:10:40+00:00
Duration: 3471 s

00:07 - 02:30

Speaker 1

that, besides the speaker, anyone else in the room may appear on the screens during that public session. So, as I say, let's try and keep this meeting, or at least this part of this meeting, efficient, so we can proceed with conciliation committee in a timely manner. So, just waiting for someone to tell me that the cameras are now on, and they are. So, good morning. Welcome viewers joining us now for our discussions in public deliberation.

We now get to the second item of our agenda, which is the preparation of the Conciliation Committee meeting with the European Parliament on the budget for 2027. I consider the Council's position of July to be a good basis for our position in the conciliation, and this has been communicated in the trilogue yesterday. There are, however, new elements to be taken into account. The Commission has presented an amending letter and a first version of the draft elements for joint conclusions. I think that these new proposals contain some interesting elements, but there are still several issues to be further discussed.

First of all, I'd like to reiterate the five main issues that remain of critical importance for the Council during our negotiations today. Firstly, keeping sufficient margins and flexibility in the budget for next year in these extraordinarily unpredictable times. Secondly, we will carefully assess the appropriate level of payments in the budget without prejudging the updates of Member States' payments forecasts. Thirdly, on administration, we remain committed to respecting the principle of stable staffing. In addition, we consider it crucial to find redeployments if we eventually were to accept a few targeted increases.

Fourthly, we must respect the agreement of the past two annual budgets regarding the financing of NextGenerationEU interest costs. We cannot renegotiate the 50-50 EURI cascade mechanism. The liquidity management costs of the EURI should be treated as an integral part of the interest costs under the EURI line, as it was the case in past years. And finally, regarding the Ukraine support loan instrument, the Council considers that we must abide by the revised MFF regulation, which provides for the instrument to be used only after all other availabilities. Council unanimously agreed this revision with the Parliament's consent only this year.

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