Parliament delays key EU budget decisions over infighting

Leaders of the political groups will delay resolving two key disputes over the EU’s long-term €2 trillion budget due to internal disagreements, several European Parliament sources told Euractiv.

MEPs have recently clashed over whether to reject a Commission plan to merge agricultural and regional funds into €865 billion national programmes, and over which Parliament committees should lead work on each of the sprawling cross-policy budget files.

Group leaders were supposed to settle the committee allocation – and possibly the rejection move – on Wednesday, but both decisions have been postponed amid infighting. It is the second time that the committee allocation has been delayed.

The Socialists have officially said they are ready to reject the national plans proposal outright, while the centre-right EPP, the largest group in Parliament, is split on what to do. A strong faction continues to push for rejection, and the group failed to agree on a position during a Tuesday meeting.

To break the deadlock, the EPP’s budget (BUDG), agriculture (AGRI) and regional (REGI) committee coordinators are holding technical discussions this week with the corresponding commissioners – Piotr Serafin, Christophe Hansen and Raffaele Fitto – three party officials told Euractiv.

An EU official said that “there is no formal structure with the EPP,” adding that Serafin has “regular, informal contacts” at the level of the commissioner.

Several parliamentary officials said that the liberal Renew and the Greens will follow suit if both the Socialists and the EPP move to reject. The conservative ECR group is also likely to reject.

Eddy Wax contributed to the reporting.

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The article has been updated.