As Member States try to keep their national budgets in balance, Parliament and the Council disagree over further cuts in the EU budget for next year.

EU Budget 2016: how much is at stake?

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/12092160/n005-150909-002-en.srt

The fight over next year’s EU budget goes on:

The Commission had proposed 153  billion euros in spending plans.

But Member States are now demanding  cuts of more than half a billion euros:

Their cuts  are contradictory, unacceptable, incoherent,

they go against the statements  of the Council.

Many key sectors could be affected  by the cuts,

such as foreign policy,  research and transport.

And some MEPS think the money foreseen  to tackle the refugee crisis and terrorism

The Council is planning further unexpected  budgetary cuts in Horizon 2020,

whose aim is to stimulate innovation  to the benefit of growth in the EU,

and the Connecting Europe Facility,  whose aim is to strengthen

big infrastructures,  especially in the energy sector.

Parliament now has to  vote on a common position

before hard negotiations with Member  States kick off at the end of October.