Märt Kivine (left), Estonian deputy finance minister and Council negotiator for the annual budget, and Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger speak at the start of the budget negotiation session | Olivier Hoslet/EFA EU negotiators agree 2018 budget After marathon negotiating session, bloc agrees commitments of more than €160 billion.

EU negotiators agreed in the early hours of Saturday morning to boost the bloc's budget by €2.2 billion for 2018.

After a 17-hour negotiating session ending at 4 a.m., representatives of the European Parliament and the Council agreed the EU would commit to spending €160.1 billion next year, compared to €157.9 billion agreed for 2017. Among the representatives of EU countries, Britain abstained, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

"The 2018 budget focuses strongly on priorities such as boosting economic growth and job creation, strengthening security and addressing the challenges posed by migration," said Märt Kivine, the Estonian deputy finance minister and chief Council negotiator for the annual budget.

The result is a compromise between the three main EU institutions. In May, the Commission proposed a budget of €160.6 billion. MEPs wanted to add €2 billion to that figure to increase infrastructure and research spending. The Council, however, suggested a figure €1.7 billion lower than the Commission's proposal.

Both the Parliament and Council now have two weeks to approve the deal.

According to officials, the Council's request for a lower budget was driven by a desire to set cash aside to renew a €3 billion deal between the EU and Turkey, intended to fund refugee camps in Turkey and thereby curb migration into the EU.

The EU has already given almost €3 billion to Turkey to tackle the migration crisis but that funding came from both the EU budget and individual member countries. But, in a letter seen by POLITICO, Germany, France, Austria and the Nordic countries made clear they wanted to shift the full cost of the program to the EU budget alone.

This issue was not raised during the negotiations, however, because Germany does not yet have a new government following September's general election and the topic is highly politically sensitive.

Ahead of the meeting, the Parliament's lead negotiator for the 2018 budget, Siegfried Mureșan, told POLITICO the assembly could not "in any way" agree for the EU to pay for every euro of the Turkey deal without national capitals contributing more to the EU's coffers.

The 2018 budget will be the last one with the U.K. as a full member of the European Union for the whole year. The British contribution to the EU budget represents around 12.5 per cent of the total.

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