Asked at a news conference on Thursday whether he still maintained the view that the commitments of 2013 budget should be tied to the EU budget of 2014 and the MFF for 2014-2020, he said “yes”.
“We had to vote at a plenary session in Strasbourg last month. However, we postponed the voting on the multiannual financial framework for a month since we had not received sufficient guarantees on additional payment appropriations. Now we will vote during the second October session, precisely on October 23, if we have guarantees as regards those nearly four billion euros. If not, we will postpone for another month until November 13 and then, if not, until December 11,” Lamassoure said.
The European Parliament urges the EU Council, which is now presided over by Lithuania, to first close the 2013 payment gap of nearly 4 billion euros, as estimated by the European Commission.
EU leaders reached an agreement on the budget for 2014–2020 in February. However, it still needs the approval of the European Parliament.
The EU’s budget for 2014–2020 has been set at 960 billion euros, including over 44 million litas (EUR 12.8b) earmarked for Lithuania.
