Brussels, 05/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - Martin Schulz, the President of the European Parliament, has announced the condition laid down by the MEPs for a vote in favour of the package on the budget 2013 and the rectifying budget 2012, to take place on Wednesday 12 December. This concerns the payment next year of the €2.9 billion still missing in the rectifying budget to honour outstanding invoices, with no impact on the 2013 budget. He urges the Commission and the Cypriot Presidency to get on board ahead of the vote, because this is a “precondition for a final positive vote in the European Parliament”.
Schulz brings pressure to bear. On Tuesday 4 December, the parliamentary committee on budgets voted positively, by way of orientation, on the budgetary package born of the trialogue negotiations with the Commission and the Cypriot Presidency, which concluded at the end of November (EUROPE 10744). However, the definitive vote will take place at the plenary session of next Wednesday, but the political groups are making their approval conditional upon certain guarantees, listed in declarations to be signed by the Presidents of the three institutions. Schulz summed up these conditions as follows: “bills for the budget year 2012 cannot be financed through shifting within the already under-financed budget 2013, but must be provided by the member states additionally. The necessary guarantees for this must be delivered at the highest levels of the institutions; there is no margin left for interpretation”. He therefore calls upon the Cypriot President and the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso to “sign the agreed declarations together with me ahead of the meeting and vote of the budget committee on Monday”.
Budgets in figures. The rectifying budget 2012 provides for a contribution of an additional €6 billion from the member states, but this is not enough to settle all of the invoices still outstanding, such as those of the Erasmus programme. A second rectifying budget of €2.9 billion is expected to be put on the table early next year, without affecting the amounts earmarked for the 2013 budget. Readers may recall that this represents €132.8 billion in payments, and €150.9 billion in commitment appropriations. This is a slightly higher budget, which exceeds the limits previously laid down by the Council, which has led the President of the Parliamentary committee on budgets, Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), to describe it as a triumph. It is, however, likely that it will lead to a further rectifying budget at the end of 2013.
Greens not happy. The Greens do not feel that this is a good thing, because “it perpetuates a vicious circle”, explains the spokesperson on the budget, Helga Trüpel (Germany), and results “from a poor agreement for Europe and for reasonable budgeting”. She laments the fact that the large political groups have not forced the member states to make good on their commitments. She says that the deficits in the key programmes in social affairs, research or cohesion are not due to new or disproportionate budgetary lines. The European governments are simply refusing to abide by the commitments they made last year, she stressed. (MD/transl.fl)