Brussels, 15/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - “We have a budget for 500 million Europeans.” With these words Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski welcomed the European Parliament (EP) vote on 15 December, rejecting all the amendments to the draft budget adopted by the Council on 10 December (see EUROPE 10275) and approving the Council text in full. The EP also adopted reports by Sidonia El¿bieta Jêdrzejewska and Helga Trüpel.
EP President Jerzy Buzek brought a certain formality to the event, thanking all those who helped bring about this positive outcome, including the Belgian Presidency and the 27 people who made up the conciliation committee, and inviting the chairman of the budgets committee, Alain Lamassoure, and the rapporteurs to join him on the podium.
The budget provides for an increase in credits for the priorities set out by the EP: - Competitiveness for growth and employment: +€18 million for the Lifelong Learning Programme, +€10 million for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, and +€10 million for the Intelligent Energy - Europe programme; - Cohesion for growth and employment: MEPs added a new line, worth +€2.5 million, for the Baltic Sea strategy; - Preservation and management of natural resources: +€300 million for a dairy fund, +€6.7 million for the programme Life+ and +€2 million for the management of fishery resources; - Freedom, security and justice: - +€2.35 million for the Daphne programme for the fight against violence against women and children and +€1 million for prevention of terrorism; - Citizenship: +€4 million to support the World Special Olympics in Athens and +€3 million to the Youth in Action programme; - EU as a global partner: +€100 million for Palestine, the peace process and UNRWA.
The EP won partial or deferred satisfaction on its political demands. The next four Presidencies of the EU Council of Ministers have pledged that the EP will be involved in future negotiations on the multi-annual financial framework (see EUROPE 10277), a commitment Parliament feels offers a sufficient guarantee. As for own resources, the European Commission has undertaken to bring forward proposals by June 2011. Parliament also won promises that, in future, the added value of new European legislation will be systematically evaluated and that a report on the cost of “non-Europe” will be prepared. Two matters remain to be settled at a later date: the flexibility instrument in the event of unforeseen expenditure and funding for the ITER nuclear fusion project. Since there is no agreement in Council, the EP decided not to vote on these issues on 5 December.
Compromise? Rather progress compared with possible freeze
Initially, the Council would have liked to see the budget frozen. The compromise which has given rise to a modest, but real, 2.9% increase is, then, a positive outcome, said Commissioner Lewandowski in a press conference. He is hoping for a “realistic but ambitious” budget for 2013.
Since the very start of these long negotiations, and under the personal authority of its president, the EP has demonstrated its sense of responsibility, “without complicating the task of the Council”, stated chairman of the budgets committee Alain Lamassoure. At the same time, the Council worked hard for a political agreement and to secure the policies of the future which the European Council approved under the Agenda 2020, but without any agreement on funding. Wednesday's agreement “is not a general agreement”, Lamassoure stated: the vote is to be complemented by a series of statements, from incoming Presidencies and the European Commission. The EP also won the political guarantee it sought: after the EU managed to demonstrate its financial solidarity in 2010 in the face of the crisis, 2011 will be the year of budgetary solidarity. The Treaty should not be amended - “new procedures have to be devised”. Lamassoure made mention of “one single little regret”, which he believes is shared by the Belgian Presidency and the Commission, over the lack of an agreement on funding the additional costs of the ITER project. The issue is still on the table, and a solution will have to be found in the coming months.
Answering questions, Lamassoure said the budget had fallen victim not to a “desire to show restraint” but to bad management on the part of governments “who are now handing out lessons on good behaviour”, when for years they had been living far beyond their means. Some Community policies will, therefore, have to pay the consequences of member states' poor management. This budget was not, he said, a victory for Mr Cameron, as some had claimed (he, in fact, wanted no increase) and it is not the United Kingdom which worries him for the future, he stated, “it's dependence on the member states”. Until such time as the budget comes from own resources, Lamassoure said, on a subject which is his hobby horse, the EU will be “at the mercy of the meanest, or the least well managed, state”. (L.G./transl.rt)