The Council of the European Union here on Friday requested the European Commission to submit a proposal to allow member states related to defer the required payment over a reasonable period of time.
According to the presidency conclusions of the meeting of EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council, which was held on Friday, the date when the relevant member states can defer their payment should be no later than Sept. 1.
"Due to the major revisions of the Gross National Income (GNI) of several member states, their additional contributions to the EU budget will be substantial," said the presidency conclusions, adding that the payment date of the first working day of December is short.
It said the original payment date in December "may result in exceptionally high fiscal implications for those member states," it said.
For the sake of equal treatment of all member states, deferral should then be an option for all if the overall sum of the GNI balances is exceptionally high. And taken into account the tight deadlines, this amendment should come into effect by Dec. 1 this year.
European Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva said at a press briefing after the meeting that the topic that took most of the time during the Council discussion was related to the GNI corrections.
"Because this year, we have had a very, unusually, large size correction, and it impacted some of our member states, like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Malta, Cyprus, more than others," she said.
She briefed that last year the total correction or adjustment was 360 million euros (about 448.43 million U.S. dollars). This year it is 9.5 billion euros. The closest the EU come to this large size of correction was in year 2007 when it was 3.8 billion euros.
"And the result of this was that when we got a big correction, then with a very short time line to pay that has created pressure on national treasuries," she said.
Georgieva said the Commission was asked to come up with the proposal that would do four things, including defining exceptional circumstances, proposing a staged payment when there are exceptional circumstances, and processing the case in a fair manner.
"We are taking on board the necessity to draw lessons from this case for the future," she said, noting that means not only to put the legislative proposal, but also to "look at timing of deliver of information, how this information can be made more easily accessible, how to encourage more transparency when it comes to data related to GNI."
Britain and some other member states were informed of the new budget calculations at an EU summit last month. The amount is based on a calculation of how well the economies of member states have fared since 1995.
Media reports had that British Prime Minister David Cameron responded angrily to the new budget, based on data showing that Britain was wealthier than previously thought, and that Britain owed more money to the EU.
Cameron insisted that there was "no pressing need" for Britain to pay the extra budget contribution of 2.1 billion euros to the EU by the Dec. 1 deadline
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also expressed unpleasant surprise over the Commission's extra budget contribution request last month. (1 euro = 1.25 U.S. dollars)