Brussels, 11/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - In June 2011, the European Commission will unveil a draft post-2013 multi-annual financial framework (MFF). The European Parliament has no more than a consultancy role on this issue. On Tuesday 11 January, the EP political group the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) was the first to get involved, publishing a position paper on the post-2013 MFF which sets out innovative new ideas on debt financing and introducing European project bonds to find the new funding needed for investment in big pan-European projects and to encourage public-private partnerships. Projects would be funded by bonds issued by the European Investment Bank (EIB). Another stalking horse of the third largest political group at the European Parliament is re-allocating cash to make savings in the current EU budget and scrapping the European Economic and Social Committee.
The chair of ALDE, Guy Verhofstadt, told reporters that ALDE wants to reverse the trend on EU income by giving the EU own long-lasting resources (customs duties, farm duties and stable VAT) that would gradually replace national contributions based on Gross National Income (GNI). Cash from the member states currently makes up more than 75% of the EU's budget.
Guy Verhofstadt noted that many MEPs want there to be a joint debate about the future of EU funding among the three EU institutions (the Council of Ministers, EP and European Commission) with national parliaments being involved in the debate. He said that the idea of a conference could be mooted for all the various protagonists to discuss the future of EU funding. Such a conference would provide an arena for ideas to be discussed but not actually decided upon because the EU Council of Ministers has the final word when it comes to the financial framework.
Income. “ALDE finds it necessary to return to the initial method of funding EU policies through own resources” and wants to discuss with the other EU institutions the option of increasing existing own resources (including the rise in EU income from VAT) and the introduction of new forms of own resources. The Liberals recommend scrapping all rebates to member states from the EU budget.
Overall size of the budget. The EU's budget for 2011 is up 2.91% on 2010 in terms of payment appropriations. “This increase of 2.91% was the result of strong resistance from many member states to increase the budget in times of difficult national austerity measures”, comments the ALDE group, adding that “the EU budget has increased by only 8.2% between 1996 and 2002, while the average increase of member states' national budgets is 22.9% for the same period.” “Within the ALDE group, there is understanding for the views of the member states in these difficult times. However, in the longer perspective, ALDE sees the need for the EU budget to live up to the obligations of the Lisbon Treaty and the goals set in the EUROPE 2020 strategy for growth and jobs. Given its current structure, the EU budget is not fit to fulfil these obligations.” ALDE believes that funding for the common agricultural policy and the cohesion policy is still justified, but needs to be updated.
Getting more bang for the EU bucks. Because it is not possible to increase the EU's budget, ALDE suggests re-allocations of large sums of cash within the budget and potential changes to the budget's structure to reflect the EU's new responsibilities. The ideas mooted by the party to reduce spending include: - restructuring some of the civil service, like the Committee of the Regions; - abolishing bodies like the European Economic and Social Committee; - bringing the European Parliament to a single location; - “limited, targeted” cuts in the CAP; - and ending funding for dubious programmes like aid for EU tobacco farmers.
The cost savings recommended will require synergies between the EU budget and member states' budgets. Some common EU action is likely to provide value added where the EU has greater weight than the sum of its member states, such as - the EEAS (European diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service); - pooling of resources for defence, R&D and innovation; - big energy and transport projects; - incorporating the European Development Fund (EDF) into the EU budget; and - monitoring the financial markets.
In addition, ALDE suggests: - making the EU budget more flexible (facilitating the transfer of cash from one heading to another and incorporating appropriations not used in one tax year as income for the following year); - improving the way the budget is implemented; and - having a five-year (rather than the present seven-year) multiannual financial framework, despite the political and practical problems this would generate. (L.C./transl.fl)