The new Commission's proposal takes into account the necessary elements in order to bring closer positions between the European Parliament and the Council. The proposal also seeks to provide a solution in order to meet the budget commitments already made.

The new version of the European Union draft budget for year 2013 presented by the European Commission sets the level of commitment at €151 billion compared to the €150.9 billion provided for in the first draft budget presented in October 2012. However, the total payment appropriations are reduced by the same amount remaining in €137.8 billion in the revised draft.

The new Commission's draft budget comes after the suspension of negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament Parliament after the 21 days conciliation period set forth by the budget negotiation process. The greatest challenge to the agreement at the end of this period stood at the compensation formula to counter the lack of additional funding for the 2012 budget. These aditional funds were requested by the European Commission in October 2012 in order to meet the budgetary needs of programmes such as Erasmus, cohesion policy, rural development or certain research and development programmes. The Commission also points out that this proposed budget amendment is till on the table for agreement between the Council and the Parliament.

The Commissioner responsible for Financial Programming and Budget, Janusz Lewandowski, highlighted the Commission's hope that the new draft will allow the Council and the Parliament to reach an agreement by the end of the year. Commissioner Lewandowski also highlighted that the EU budget itself represents a compendium of all payments or reimbursements committed with thousands of beneficiaries of EU policies, whether they be students, businesses, local and regional entities, NGOs, research groups or any other citizen or body in the European Union.