After the Parliament’s rejection on 18 January of the summit deal (see EurActiv 17 December) on the EU’s financial perspectives 2007-2013, the Council and the Parliament are now in the process of hammering out an inter-institutional deal on the budget.
Realising that it is unlikely to have much luck in moving the overall figure of 862.3 billion euros upwards toward the 975 billion euros, initially demanded by the Parliament, Janusz Lewandowski, the budget committee chairman now sets his sights at the future:
"We need to be involved in the review," Lewandowski said, referring to the mid-term review of the budget scheduled for 2008-2009, which was also agreed at the December summit: "We're focusing on the rules, rather than on money. In order for us to approve the budget we need to reform the Parliament's rights.”
Under the present rules, the Parliament has a veto over the budget. However, it is not directly involved in structuring it.
The Austrian EU presidency, which is chairing the talks, cautioned against counting on a deal by the April 1 deadline: "An agreement is possible but to be honest it seems very ambitious as the differences are huge. There would have to be considerable and serious progress for this to happen," said Austrian Finance Minister, Karl-Heinz Grasser.
