Thursday 12 May 2016 3:49 pm

Europe postpones publication of 2017 draft budget as Brexit vote nears

The European Union has pushed back the publication of its draft budget for 2017 – potentially until after the UK holds its referendum on whether to remain a member of the EU.

The Budget was originally scheduled to be published on 25 May, but Politico reported this afternoon that it was now not likely to surface until around 27 June – the week after the referendum.

The European Commission denied that the change of date was a delay, saying that there were only preliminary plans to issue a statement this month. However, due to the budgetary implications of the refugee crisis, the Commission said it wanted to make some additional calculations and had decided to postpone the publication to make sure these could be carried out.

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Alexander Winterstein, spokesman for budget and human resources at the Commission said: "This is a key moment in the refugee crisis and we need to adapt our budget proposals accordingly. As always, we will propose a draft budget before the summer."

Officials said the UK's referendum had nothing to do with the timing of the EU budget, adding there was no reason that the vote should affect its publication.

Due to EU rules there will not be any major changes in the size of the EU budget in terms of its commitments from member states or its payments. However, Matthew Wood, a politics lecturer at the University of Sheffield told Morning Wire that shifting the dates of the budget made sense from a purely practical point of view.

"Obviously, the potential impact of Brexit would be enormous on EU finances, given the size of UK contributions … UK exit would likely throw EU finances into major doubt for future years," he said.

"So it would be sensible to delay the budget until after the referendum. There are always political considerations going on around the Commission's budget … I'd be surprised if it hadn't been taken into account," he said.