Deal reached on EU budget 2007-2013

The Parliament and the Austrian Presidency have reached a compromise on the long-term budget for the period 2007-2013. The agreement is at 864.4 billion euro, 2 billion euros more than the Summit deal of December 2005.

After difficult negotiations, the Austrian Presidency has announced a deal with the European Parliament on the long-term financial framework 2007-2013 of the Union. The members of the European Parliament had threatened to block the agreement reached by the EU heads of state and government during the European Council meeting in December 2005. The MEPs wanted a substantial increase (with 12 billion euro) of the 862 billion euro budget agreed by the EU-25 (see also EURACTIV 4 April 2006).

In the end, the Parliament’s negotiators managed to get only 2 billion euros more. The member states will have to give their final green light to this deal but Austrian finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser said he did not expect major opposition anymore from the governments.

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