Brussels, 24/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - As expected, the European Parliament voted on Tuesday 23 October on the EU's draft budget for 2013, cancelling the reductions introduced by the EU Council of Ministers in July and returning to the amounts initially suggested by the European Commission. The amendments mean that the EP now foresees a total 2013 budget of €151.15 billion in commitment appropriations, 2.20% more than in 2012, with payment appropriations up by 6.82% to €137.89 billion. The Council of Ministers set the 2013 budget at €149.77 billion in commitments (up 1.27%) and €132.69 billion in payments (up 2.79%).
The Council of Ministers rejects the Parliaments's amendments, which means that the conciliation process opens for three weeks to help the two EU institutions reach agreement. The Conciliation Committee will be meeting on 26 October and 9 November, the date of the ECOFIN Council (budget section).
Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy) says the Parliament has decided to send a message by increasing the budget for growth and job creation. It has increased the headings for 2013 over the 2012 level to avoid the danger of having to cancel programmes due to lack of money.
Janusz Lewandowski, the EU Budget Commissioner, welcomed the Parliament's vote, commenting that the level of funding set by the Parliament was the minimum required to cover commitment appropriations, warning that neither the Parliament nor the Commission had fished figures out of thin air. Like Jan Mulder (ADLE, the Netherlands), the Commissioner said the total payment requests from the member states received by the Commission themselves amounted to a 15% increase in payments! The Commission has reduced this to an increase of 6.8%, a level the Parliament sees as the bare minimum.
Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), chair of the Parliament's Budgets Committee, said the payments problem was “ridiculous.” The Commission and the Parliament are seen, he said, by EU governments as “abominable snowmen” that go around throwing money about and over-spending, but in reality, the payment appropriations in the draft budget for 2013 and the amending budget for 2012 (€9 billion extra requested, see yesterday's EUROPE), “is the money of the member states, not Brussels,” explained Lamassoure.
The European Parliament has restored the €1.9 billion cuts made by the Council in July in areas viewed by the MEPs as vital for growth stimulus, areas like the economy, research, entrepreneurship and employment. These include programmes like Erasmus Mundus, life-long education and the seventh R&D research programme, for which the Commission has unveiled an amending budget (see EUROPE 10716).
The MEPs have restored the €1.6 billion cuts made by the Council and cancelled most of the ministers' reductions in farm spending.
For Palestine and the Middle East, the MEPs decided not only to re-introduce the €200 million made in the Commission's initial draft budget, but also to add a further €100 million.
European Parliament budget. The MEPs have approved the savings of €8.9 million in the European Parliament's operational expenditure compared with the initial proposals. The Parliament's budget will increase by 1.9% on 2012, which is the forecast inflation rate. Given that the budget includes the extra costs occasioned by Croatia joining the EU, this means that it will be reduced in real terms.
If the conciliation process reaches agreement, then the final vote in plenary will take place in November. (LC/transl.fl)