Wednesday 10 March 2010

The EU budget procedure under Lisbon

The Commisssion has issued the "Draft Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on cooperation in budgetary matters" which, in its Annex (from page 14), contains a clear procedure for the setting-up of the EU's yearly budget under the Lisbon Treaty.
  • Until April: The three institutions meet to discuss the priorities for the next year.
  • Last week of April/first week of May: The Commission passes the draft budget.
  • Until mid-June: Council and Parliament inform the Commission about possible amendments.
  • June/July: The three institutions meet to discuss the draft budget.
  • Until the end of July: Council decides on the draft budget.
  • Until early October: The Parliaments budget committee votes on the budget (in the version of the Council).
  • Until mid-October: The Parliament plenary votes on the budget.
  • Until mid-November: If the Parliament has amended the budget in the Council version in its reading, the institutions have 21 days to come to an agreement in the "Conciliation Process" (which is described at length in the draft document)
Interestingly, there are no provisions about what happens when the Council and the Parliament don't come to an agreement.

2 comments:

philip said...

Interestingly, there are no provisions about what happens when the Council and the Parliament don't come to an agreement.

I assume the system of 'provisional twelfths' will take effect until a consensus is made, just as in the past

Julien Frisch said...

That is what is written in Article 315 of the TFEU, indeed.

Just thought they might add something since the last deadline in the paper is mid-November which definitely would leave some time until the end of the year.