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EU budget: EP demands better funding for long-term, 2017 plans

Xinhua, October 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

The European Parliament (EP) on Wednesday demanded better funding for the European Union (EU)'s long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), as well as for the 2017 annual budget.

Meeting in Strasbourg for its plenary session, the EP in two resolutions called on the European Council to reverse proposed cuts and earmark finances for crisis management.

Members of European Parliament (MEPs) cited the need to be able to help youth find jobs, to boost economic growth, to assist third countries in mitigating the ongoing influx of irregular migration, and the need for "headroom" to cope with unforeseen crises, as reasons for elevated budget ceilings and increased flexibility of budgetary tools.

"The EU is facing an unprecedented number of different challenges. If we are serious about getting to grips with these, then we need a well-funded EU budget," declared lead rapporteur Jens Geier.

"We need a comprehensive revision of the MFF and a more ambitious EU budget. The current MFF is outdated," he insisted.

In their midterm review of the 2014-2020 MFF, the parliamentarians judged that European Commission proposals to revise the budget plan were responsive to earlier calls for flexibility and for an EU crisis reserve, but that available resources had not yet changed.

MEPs cited several current areas of concern that were not yet visible in 2013, when the MFF was negotiated, such as terrorism and internal security issues, agricultural failures and unemployment levels, and which would require better funding to tackle.

During the initial MFF negotiations, for example, migration was dropping annually, whereas now levels have topped over 1 million migrants coming to the EU every year, contributing to budgetary and societal stress across the continent.

The long-term budget's mid-term review also suggested that all available funds should be used, with any surplus remaining in the budget to address priorities and avoid backlogs of unpaid bills, as was the case under the prior MFF.

In a second resolution, MEPs demanded more funds for the 2017 annual EU budget currently under inter-institutional negotiation, reversing all cuts proposed by the European Council in order to address various EU objectives including youth unemployment and management of migration pressures.

The parliamentarians set overall appropriations for 2017 at 160.7 billion euros (about 177 billion U.S. dollars), 4.1 billion euros more than the draft budget, for commitments and 136.7 billion euros, 2.5 billion euros more, for payments. Additional appropriations were expected to be pay for by revisions to the current MFF.

In the next stage of negotiations, three weeks of "conciliation" talks between the EP and the European Council will run until Nov. 17, with the goal of a deal being reached in time for the 2017 budget being endorsed by MEPs and signed by the President of the European Parliament in December.

If the EP and the European Council fail to reach an agreement by Nov. 17, the European Commission is required to table a new draft budget. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollars) Endit