EU Budget 2020 conciliation talks suspended

After making every effort to reach a compromise on an adequate EU budget for 2020 during long hours on Friday, Parliament and Council have suspended the talks without agreement.

The discussions will continue on Monday 18 November, the last day of the conciliation period.

Jan Van Overtveldt (ECR, BE), Chair of the Committee on Budgets: “We made progress in the talks today. Unfortunately, this has not yet been sufficient to find an agreement on the Union budget for 2020, the last year of the current Multiannual Financial Framework. As it stands, more than €4 billion would remain unused in 2020. We should reflect very thoroughly how best to deal with this given the many challenges the EU needs to address. We believe that the week-end break will help us to find a good compromise. We have faith in the goodwill of the Council.”

Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, DE), lead rapporteur (Commission section of the budget): “We will continue to engage with Council to find positive solutions on our priorities - climate, digitalisation and youth. We are fully committed to deliver on Monday.”

Next steps

Should the Conciliation Committee fail to find an agreement on a joint text within a 21-day-period - which ends on Monday 18 November at midnight -, a new draft budget must be submitted by the Commission. If the Conciliation Committee does agree on a joint text within the deadline, then Parliament and the Council have 14 days from the date of that agreement in which to approve the joint text.

Parliament’s position on the 2020 budget: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20191017IPR64565/eu-investment-budget-for-2020-a-boost-for-the-climate