Stalled negotiations on the European Union's next seven-year budget were unlocked Monday at what Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore described as a "productive" first round of talks, dpa reported.
"I am very satisfied with this first formal trialogue meeting," Gilmore, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said after the meeting of representatives of the European Parliament, European Commission and member states.
"We have agreed to meet again on May 28, by which point we expect to be in a position to have netted down the main political areas that will require discussion and agreement."
The EU's 27 member states had painstakingly agreed in February to cap the 2014-20 budget at 960 billion euros (1.24 trillion dollars), which would lead to the first ever real-term cut to a multi-year budget. But the European Parliament then swiftly rejected the deal, demanding a new round of negotiations as it exercises for the first time the power to sign off on the bloc's expenditures.
Among its demands are a revision clause to later change the budget, flexibility provisions to shift funding allocations and a push for budget resources to be raised directly by the bloc.
The parliament flexed its muscles by linking any progress in the 2014-20 negotiations to agreement on plugging an 11.2-billion-euro hole in this year's budget.
EU governments bristled at the suggestion, given the unusually high and unusually early demand for extra money.
As a compromise, EU finance ministers are now set on Tuesday to consider the release of an initial 7.3 billion euros to start closing the deficit, with the remainder to be taken up later in the year once more hard data is available.
"You don't give away money on basis of European Commission estimates," one diplomat noted. "But there will be an acknowledgment of the political reality - the parliament wants it to stop holding the (2014-20 budget) negotiations hostage."
Gilmore stressed the importance of agreeing in coming months on the budget, which was about "promoting growth and jobs in Europe."
"The danger is that if we don't conclude that before the summer, that once ... member states start to get into discussions about their own national budgets and ... the thoughts of members of the European Parliament start turning to the European elections next May, it will be more difficult to reach agreement on it," Gilmore said.