Financial Framework 2014 - 2020

On 27 June 2013, negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-2020 were successfully concluded at the highest political level between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission.

This included agreement on:

• a draft MFF Council Regulation, which has meanwhile been sent by the Council to the Parliament with the request for its consent;
• a draft Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, cooperation in budgetary matters and sound financial management;
• four joint declarations by the three institutions;
• two unilateral declarations by the Commission.

On 22 July 2013 the Secretary-General of the Council addressed a letter to the President of the Commission requesting the Commission to give its approval to the draft Interinstitutional Agreement, the joint declarations as well as the declarations by the Commission.

On this basis, the Commission today endorsed:

• the draft Interinstitutional Agreement, subject to legal/linguistic finalisation, with a view to allowing the conclusion of the Interinstitutional Agreement;
• the draft Joint Declaration on Own Resources, the draft Joint declaration on improving effectiveness of public spending in matters subject to EU’s action, the draft Joint Declaration (related to the integration of gender-responsive elements in the annual budgetary procedures) and the draft Joint Declaration on Article 15 of the Council Regulation laying down the MFF for the years 2014-2020;
• the draft Declaration by the European Commission on national management declarations and the draft Declaration by the European Commission on the review/revision.

The full document package is now subject to approval by the European Parliament, following which the Council will adopt the MFF Regulation and the three institutions sign the Interinstitutional Agreement.

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Following the adoption of its proposal for a Council Regulation laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-20201 ("MFF Regulation"), the Commission submitted proposals for all the legislative acts concerning the multiannual programmes for that period. As detailed under point 2 below, two of these proposals imply amendments to the proposal for a MFF Regulation.

It is also necessary to update the multiannual financial framework table included in the annex to the MFF Regulation to take into account the following elements:

• Allocations for the Republic of Croatia are to be added to the Commission's proposal for EU-27 based on the Act of Accession signed on 9 December 20112.
• The availability of new data for regional GDP and national GNI results in changes to the regional and national eligibility under the Union's cohesion policy and therefore in a recalculation of the regional and national allocations.
• The most recent macro-economic forecasts and projections should be taken into account to calculate the maximum national allocations for Member States subject to capped cohesion envelopes as well as to express the ceilings