The European Parliament has called for a timely remedy for the 2013 budget shortfalls and expressed its will to intensify negotiations on the multi-annual financial framework (MFF).

A meeting of the EP’s Budgets Committee yesterday stressed the need to settle last year's outstanding bills of €11.2 billion, before concluding the MFF negotiations, to avoid starting off the 2014 budget with a deficit.

At the budget summit last February, EU heads of state and government agreed on a reduced budget for 2014 to 2020, with Malta managing to secure up to €1.128 billion in EU funds for the seven year period.

This was considered better than if Malta was still an Objective One member state. These funds were put in jeopardy after the EP overwhelmingly rejected a proposal for the EU's €960 billion budget.

Parliament's call yesterday follows last week's development which saw EP President Martin Schulz, Parliament's lead negotiator Alain Lamassoure, the Irish Council Presidency and EC President Jose Manuel Barroso acknowledging the need for €11.2 billion and agreeing on a two-tranche approach for the shortfalls: the first €7.3 billion to be adopted now, followed by a second one in early autumn.

However, while the Finance Ministers' meeting last Tuesday produced a political agreement on the €7.3 billion, it failed to mention the remaining €3.9 billion, with council saying that it would formally adopt the €7.3 billion budget amendment only in parallel to its adoption of the MFF.

Hence, while acknowledging the political agreement on the €7.3 billion as a positive step forward, the EP reiterated the need for a formal, binding decision by the council on the full €11.2 billion before concluding MFF negotiations, expressing its intention to intensify negotiations on the MFF, and is now awaiting a reply from the council.