Further delay in Brexit talks represents a risk for the EU budget and Hungary

HUNGARY - In Brief 04 Nov 2018 by Istvan Racz

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Well, Brexit is not only a problem for the EU budget because it will most probably take away some 9% of the latter's revenues, but also because delays in the conclusion of Brexit talks may cause a serious delay to the upcoming negotiations on the EU budget framework for 2021-2027. Very simply, the timeline set for these budget talks looks very tight anyway, as a political accord on the issue is required by May 2019, in order to avoid undue delays caused by the European Parliament election in June and the subsequent change in the EU Commission later in 2019. For that tight timeline to be kept, the European Council's December 2018 summit should be devoted mainly to the budget issue, given the likely sharp debate on a number of issues.However, should a Brexit deal not be achieved by the end of this month and the related talks be extended into December, a serious discussion on the budget could become impossible in December. And if because of such a delay, the conclusion of the budget debate would not be possible by next May, the whole 2021-2027 budget could suffer an at least one-year delay compared to current plans.Just what this would mean in practice can be seen from the fact that on the running (2014-2020) budget framework, the European Council reached a political accord in February 2013, the related decree was issued in December 2013, and the first funds under this budget's development programs became available in January 2016 only, following lengthy work and administrative procedures on the detailed programs. Should an accord and the regulation as to the 2021-2027 budget be achieved by end-2019, the first development funds could become available maybe in 2022. But in...