A Meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council was held in Brussels on Friday to discuss the EU budget for the year 2013.

The 2013 budget is the third annual budget to be negotiated under the provisions of a new procedure for the adoption of the European Union budget provided for by the Lisbon Treaty, which puts the Council and the European Parliament on an equal footing.

The two Institutions embarked on this Conciliation exercise with two different positions with the Council wishing to limit the EU budget for the next year to €149.76 billion in commitments and €132.69 billion in payments taking into account the current budgetary constraints of the Member States and budget implementation in the past years, whilst the European Parliament is asking for €151.151 billion in commitments and €137.898 billion in payments.

While progress was made on a number of aspects of the Conciliation negotiations, the Council and the European Parliament were unable to mitigate all of their outstanding differences. Over the next few days, Member States and the European Parliament, supported by the European Commission, will continue to discuss options for reaching a compromise with a view to finding an agreement as soon as possible.

The EU budget for the year 2013 is the last annual budget under the current financial period (2007-2013) and is separate from ongoing negotiations on the next financial perspectives (known as the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020), which will be discussed at a special European Council meeting to be held in Brussels later on this month.

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