EU budget renegotiations underway<br /><br /> Italy wants increases in funding<br /><br /> Deadline is midnight on Thursday<br /><br /> What is happening?<br /><br /> EU governments and institutions are set for intense budget negotiations ahead of a Thursday deadline.<br /><br /> The European Commission proposed in September that a mid-term review of the current budget should boost spending by 13 billion euros in 2017’2020.<br /><br /> Funds will be reallocated from other areas.<br /><br /> However Italy, which holds a constitutional referendum on December 4th, says it is not satisfied with the plan.<br /><br /> Negotiations on #EUbudget 2017 continue today. We need to stand together to face the challenges ahead pic.twitter.com/527LjF20Tl— Kristalina Georgieva (@KGeorgievaEU) November 10, 2016<br /><br /> What has Rome said?<br /><br /> Italy wants more funding to be allocated.<br /><br /> “Italy opposes the review of this multi-year budget,” said Italy’s Europe Minister, Sandro Gozi.<br /><br /> “We think we still need a proposal which gives us many more guarantees on a real increase in resources for our nation.”<br /><br /> Gozi said the Italian government considers the failure to guarantee funding increases for the country’s priorities unacceptable.<br /><br /> Speaking on the fringes of a meeting in Brussels, Gozi listed these as migration, security, youth unemployment and research programmes.<br /><br /> “I am thinking of immigration, I am thinking about security, I am thinking about European resources for the young.”<br /><br /> Gozi said Italy was “very tired of European ambiguities, very tired of European contradictions,” and of “a Europe that says certain things but does not do them.”<br /><br /> “We are convinced that if Europe does not change, then we are at the beginning of the disintegration of Europe,” Gozi added.<br /><br /> #Italie a bloqué la révision du #BudgetUE2014-20 annoncé sandrogozi matteorenzi est passé aux actes https://t.co/HUZCxtrukS— Christian Spillmann (@CSpillmann) November 15, 2016<br /><br /> The budget<br /><br /> The EU operates on the basis of seven-year budgets to finance various projects important for the 28-nation bloc.<br /><br /> The current budget, which ends in 2020, is worth 1.04% of the EU’s gross national income (GNI).<br /><br /> The EU agreed to review its spending priorities by the end of 2016 to reflect economic trends and whatever challenges may arise.<br /><br /> The deadline<br /><br /> The November 17th deadline for a deal between the Commission, EU governments and the EU parliament stems from a 21-day legal conciliation period that started in October.<br /><br /> If there was no deal by midnight on Thursday. the Commission will have to make a new proposal to be negotiated by mid-December.<br /><br /> This is this year’s final plenary sitting of the European Parliament.<br /><br /> At the first meeting of the Conciliation Committee with the important task to decide on the #EUBudget 2017 pic.twitter.com/RA3kuNRnF1— Kristalina Georgieva (@KGeorgievaEU) November 8, 2016<br /><br /> Renzi<br /><br /> In October, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warned Italy may block the EU budget if it does not get help dealing with the migrant emergency.<br /><br /> “We give 20 billion to Euro
