Strasbourg, 06/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France) has played down the possible rejectiion by Parliament of the agreement which may be reached by the heads of state and government on the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) 2014-2020, at the European Summit of 7 and 8 February. The Parliament will be asked to support or reject the political agreement in the coming months. Lamassoure, chair of the parliamentary committee on budgets, explained to the press on Wednesday 6 February that “a rejection by the European Parliament would not be a crisis or a drama. It is provided for by the treaties, there will be no budgetary void. What will happen is that the previous budget will be renewed for as long as there is no agreement” (our translation throughout). Consequently, he explained, “the European Parliament has no reason to be in a hurry”. He added that the best way to look at it is as follows: “in these times of uncertainty we are experiencing, when we do not have the resources to finance this budget, are we going to allow our hands to be tied for seven years?” He therefore intends to ask the Council for “the details of the decisions proposed, policy by policy, country by country, for expenditure and resources, which will immediately show that the discussions have not focused on Europe but on how to accommodate the heads of government so that everyone gets his or her own present”. He went on to add that “the Parliament will issue its final vote once it has had all of the legislative texts, all of the assurances it needs, this will take a lot of time, but we are not in any emergency”. (MD/transl.fl)