Brussels, 12/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 12 October, during a meeting with a group of journalists in Brussels, Alain Lamassoure, chairman of the budgets committee explained that the European Parliament was ready to accept a very limited rise in the EU budget 2011 but on the condition that member states agree to open the debate on creating, “new own resources that could be for the European budget”.
On 20 October, the European Parliament will vote on the draft budget for next year (EUROPE 10232), before entering into a conciliation period (from 27 October) with the Council, which promises to be very difficult. The possibility of a political crisis cannot be ruled out.
Alain Lamassoure declared, “the EU budgetary crisis, which has been simmering for 10 years, is now exploding”. He explained that this crisis was engendered by two different phenomena with contradictory effects on the Community budget: - 1) the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty creates new competencies or reinforces current ones (common energy policy, immigration policy, space policy, sport and tourism etc)., and these competencies, “require a minimum of financial resources”; - 2) the public debt crisis in Europe means that member states find it impossible to increase their contributions to the European budget. Lamassoure commented that “the European budget is now the prisoner of national budgets.
On a number of occasions, the EP has urged the Commission to put forward a draft revision of the current multiannual financial framework (2007-2013), which it has so far refused to do. In August, the Council tackled the draft 2011 budget and called for an almost zero increase (0.2% in commitment appropriations) compared to the budget for 2010. According to Lamassoure, the position of the EP budgets committee is as follows: “We are prepared to take into account the concerns of the Council to limit any increase in the EU budget for 2011” (the budgets committee is recommending an increase of +0.8% on 2010 but would agreed to go further in the direction of the Council). For the first time in 20 years, the budget committee is not going above the ceilings included in the spending sections.
In exchange for this effort, the EP would like, “a political agreement from the Council on how to ensure funding for medium-term European policies”. In the context of expenditure, the EP is calling on the Council to agree to begin assessing the financial requirements of the new EU competencies under the Lisbon Treaty. The cost of these new policies is expected to be evaluated in 2012 but not after 2014 (the date of the beginning of the next financial framework). On the question of revenue, the EP is urging the Council to agree to a “follow-up” to the document that the European Commission will publish on 19 October on a number of possible options for replacing current European budget funding. Clarification: the text on the “budget review” is a communication and not a legal document; it is a communication. The EP would like there to be a “political follow-up leading to a legal follow-up to this communication” on new own resources and an agreement on a procedure and calendar.
Among the possibilities mentioned by Lamassoure (who is open to all possible options) on the new own resources are: - making the banks pay either an indirect tax or a tax on profits; - reallocating, for example, one point from VAT to the European budget (or “only take into account VAT on intra-Community trade to finance the European budget”, explained Mr Lamassoure); - compensation paid by cigarette producers could become a new own resource; - and using part of the revenue generated by the Emissions Trading Scheme to increase the EU budget. It should be noted that as from 2013, the EU will trade greenhouse gas emission rights for the most polluting activities. According to the Commission, revenue from these sales could reach between €30-60 billion. (L.C./transl.fl)