EU 2009 Budget: an agreement on the food facility and an overall deal

The 9-hour negotiation on 21 November between representatives of Parliament and the Council of Ministers delivered an overall deal on the 2009 budget and on the € 1 billion agricultural aid for developing countries, the so called "food facility".
Parliament succeeded in securing funding for agricultural aid for developing countries: it was possible to maintain the total amount of €1 billion that had been proposed for "a facility for rapid response to soaring prices in developing countries" over the three-year period 2008-10. The funds will come from three sources: the flexibility instrument, the emergency aid reserve and the redeployment of funds within the external relations heading.

€760 million is "fresh money", including, in 2008, mobilisation of the Emergency Aid Reserve still available in this year’s budget, amounting to €22 million, and an additional sum of €240 million – this raising of the funding ceiling of the Emergency Aid Reserve (EAR) in 2008 required unanimity in Council and an adjustment of the inter-institutional agreement. €78 million will come from the 2009 EAR. The institutions also agreed on the use of the flexibility instrument for 2009 for €420 million.

The final €240 million will come from the re-deployment of funds in the (external relations) stability instrument which had not already been earmarked for a particular goal.

Modest rise in the budget compared with 2008

As far as the entire EU budget for 2009 is concerned, the overall amount of €116 096 million in payments was agreed for 2009 – this represents 0.894% of EU Gross National Income, and comes in below the levels set out in the Multiannual Financial Framework 2007-2013 (the “financial perspective”). It represents a modest increase over the 2008 budget.

Following strong pressure from the EP delegation, the Commission has committed to carry over an amount of up to €700 million of unspent rural development funding from 2008 to 2009. All in all, the net increase of payments over the 2008 budget will amount to approximately € 1 billion. A joint declaration on payments was also adopted, asking the Commission to submit amending budgets, especially for heading 1b (cohesion policy).

Taken together, these measures are intended to provide the funding needed to allow the EU’s policies to continue to develop in the light of challenges ahead.

Cohesion policy

Another joint declaration addressing all institutions was agreed in the context of the economic downturn. This declaration invites the Commission to take straightforward internal measures to accelerate the implementation of its programmes. It also encourages Member States to speed up the presentation of their descriptions of their management control systems to the Commission.

The Parliament delegation made a declaration of its own, describing as "unacceptable" the level of implementation of the appropriations for cohesion policy (i.e. the proportion of the planned budget actually spent) and calling on the Commission and Members States, responsible for the implementation of these appropriations, to adopt "all measures possible" to ensure its adequate implementation.

Parliament's second reading of the 2009 Budget is expected to take place on 18 December.