Council reaches agreement on Financial Perspectives
The prospect of a seamless transition from the Sixth to the Seventh Framework Programme received a boost in the early hours of 17 December, when EU leaders emerged from their Council meeting in Brussels to announce that a deal had been struck on the EU's budget for 2007 to 2013. Following more than 30 hours of what Council President and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair described as 'amazingly complicated negotiation', European leaders agreed on a maximum EU budget of just over 862 billion euro for the period of the Union's next so-called Financial Perspective. This figure is 22 billion euro below the compromise proposed by the Luxembourg Presidency in June, and 273 billion less than the original Commission proposal in 2004. In terms of its impact on EU research and development (R&D) activities, the compromise falls short of the doubling of the FP7 budget originally put forward by the Commission. However the final agreement, as proposed by the UK Presidency ahead of the Brussels summit, states that 'EU funding for research should [...] be increased such that by 2013 the resources available are 75 per cent higher in real terms than in 2006'. The Council also supported the Commission's proposal to establish a risk-sharing financing facility for R&D in cooperation with the European Investment bank, worth up to 10 billion euro. EU Heads of State and Government also agreed to establish a 'Global Adjustment Fund' to provide support for workers who lose their jobs as the result of globalisation. Reacting to the agreement, Commission President José Manuel Barroso admitted that it was 'not everything that the Commission wanted', but stressed: 'This is a very important political signal for Europe. Europe has avoided paralysis. Europe is on the move again. The cost of not having an agreement would have been enormous.' MR Barroso continued: 'I fear there is still an imbalance between the tasks given to the EU, and the funds provided to deliver them. We will have to tell citizens openly that the savings agreed by the Member States have consequences. With this budget, there are a number of things that cannot be done.' The European Parliament's President, Josep Borrell, appeared less philosophical than his Commission counterpart on the result of the summit, warning that the deal represents only the start of negotiations. '[T]his agreement by the Council is not the end of the process. It marks the beginning of the last phase of negotiations with the European Parliament and the Commission. Without wanting to prejudge the positions that will be taken by the European Parliament, I note that the position of the Council is still very far from that of the European Parliament.' However, France's President Jacques Chirac described the agreement as a good deal for Europe, saying that Mr Blair showed a lot of courage in a difficult political situation. German's new Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was also widely praised for her behind the scenes work in achieving a compromise.