European Union budget negotiations for 2018 will be led by Special Representative Märt Kivine during the Estonian Presidency
The Government decided that the negotiations about the budget of the European Union for the next year between the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission will be led by Special Representative Märt Kivine. Minister of Finance Sven Sester proposed the appointment of Märt Kivine as the Special Representative to the Government.
According to Minister of Finance Sven Sester, the appointment of Märt Kivine as the Special Representative complies with the practices of the EU. “The Minister of Finance will have to deal with a number of tasks related to the management of the council of economics and finance ministers (Ecofin),” explained Sester. “The budget negotiations are a separate and time-consuming process that has often been entrusted to a special representative who acts in close cooperation with the minister. This approach has justified itself during the tense budget negotiations of recent years.”
“The successful approval of the European Union budget for 2018 in the current complicated situation is one of the priorities during the Estonian Presidency,” added Sester. “I am convinced that with Märt Kivine in charge, we will be able to successfully lead the negotiations to the desired result. Kivine has proven himself in public service in Estonia as well as in international financial institutions.”
“Estonia is expected to lead the negotiations about the European Union’s budget for the next year smoothly,” said Märt Kivine. “Estonia is facing the challenge of finding a balance and some common ground between the interests of the 28 Member States, as the EU budget is a policy management instrument, just like a national budget.”
Budget negotiations have also been held under the leadership of a special representative during the Presidency of Sweden, Lithuania and Slovakia, for example. Märt Kivine will be authorised to represent Estonia as the Presidency at the plenary session of the Parliament, at conciliation meetings and trilateral negotiations or trialogues with the European Parliament and the European Commission.
The position of the special representative was established in the Ministry of Finance until the end of the Presidency. Märt Kivine will start working on 24 April 2017.
Märt Kivine will assume this position after leaving the World Bank in Washington, where he worked as the Chief Economist and Advisor to the Executive Director at World Bank. Before going to Washington, Kivine was an Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and the Representative of Estonia to the European Economic and Financial Committee. Kivine has also worked in the European Integration Office, the National Audit Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as a journalist. He graduated from the University of Tartu in the specialty of Estonian philology and studied political sciences and literary science at the University of Helsinki.
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