EU finally agrees on 2015 budget, but development funding remains in limbo

The European Union has avoided a collapse of its budget by agreeing on its expenses for next year after the European Parliament voted Wednesday in favor of a compromise with the EU’s 28 member states, although snowballing debts from past years could still jeopardize development funding throughout 2015.

By a 443-250 vote with 7 abstentions, members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France gave the final green light to a draft budget with 145.32 billion euros ($179.2 billion) in commitments and 141.21 billion euros in payments. EU lawmakers also secured an additional 4.25 billion euros for the bloc to pay its bills to partner NGOs, small firms and other contractors. Parliament has tasked the European Commission — the EU’s executive arm — to come up with a plan to bring the backlog of bills — which is spiraling to reach a record 25 billion to 30 billion euros by the end of the year — back under control.

Wednesday’s agreement follows an earlier compromise between parliament, the 28 member states — known collectively as the European Council — and the commission. The council had first tried to impose cuts on the draft budget proposed by the commission, while the parliament pushed for more expenses in 2015 and an end to the backlog in previous payments. In the end, the MEPs managed to put off further cuts by the member states.