Brussels, 19/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on Tuesday 19 October, just a few hours before the European Commission published its re-assessment of the EU budget, the leaders of the main political groups in the European Parliament (EP) called for the creation of new own resources and put forward ideas for reducing expenditure from the EU budget (such as putting in place common European policies and transferring certain work that is currently done at national level to the EU).
Leader of the S&D group Martin Schulz said: “What is needed is a reduction in needless spending, and research and development and innovation to be the investment priority. … The quality of the EU budget has to be improved”. The S&D will “fight this orgy of budget reduction,” he added. He acknowledged that, for own resources, “it will be very difficult, because there has to be unanimity in the Council”.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who leads the Greens/EFA group, drew attention to the desire within the Council to reduce member states' contributions to the European budget. The Lisbon Treaty gives more responsibility to Europe and provides for more European-level projects. “The contradiction is that it is mathematically and physically impossible to balance the budget”. “EU countries want €1.4 billion more for the ITER project, then they say they don't want to put in any more money,” he said. “There would be more savings with single European diplomatic centres. What is the need of keeping embassies for all 27 member states in Botswana?” The Greens/EFA are calling for a “link” between the 2012 and 2013 budgets and the 2014-2020 financial perspectives. On own resources, Cohn-Bendit said: “A carbon tax, or a tax on financial transactions might be possibilities. Member states would have to contribute less if we had our own resources”.
Leader of the ALDE group, Guy Verhofstadt said: “we would like to see new own resources. The Council will have to agree to new own resources”. Before the British rebate, the European budget was based on own resources (it is now increasingly dependent on national contributions). At that time, VAT, customs duties and agricultural import taxes were the basis of own resources. “If the EU is asked to do more work, then it has to be given additional resources,” Verhofstadt said, adding: “We want to get back to own resources being the main source of the EU budget”.
In terms of expenditure, the ALDE group would like to see national functions transferred to the EU, and duplication avoided. “This would allow us to save ten times more money,” Verhofstadt said, arguing that in three areas in particular (R&D, defence and diplomatic services) responsibility could be transferred from the member states to the EU, thereby making possible substantial savings.
“The EU's system of financial resources based on national contributions is not longer fit for purpose. We urge the Council to think about own resources,” said Joseph Daul, who leads the EPP group. He also pushed the idea of common European policies - R&D and innovation, agriculture, cohesion, foreign affairs and the EEAS - in the search for savings. “An in-depth discussion has to be engaged,” he said. “We now have to take steps to ensure that own resources become the main source of the European budget. They could be based on taxation on finance, airline tickets, CO2 (…),” he went on. He accepted that a European tax “is not easy to manage”. Transferring a proportion of the money raised from VAT to the EU budget was “something to consider,” Daul opined. (E.H./transl.rt)