Strasbourg, 06/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The MEPs have given the member states a list of their conditions for an acceptable agreement on the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) 2014-2020: flexibility, a revision clause and own resources. These come on top of the EP's firm rejection of a reduced European budget. On the eve of a European Summit which will be decisive for the forthcoming budget of the Union, the MEPs held a preparatory debate with the Commission and the Irish Presidency of the Council of Ministers, on Wednesday 6 February 2013. They want reassurance that reform of the European budgetary machine will be started on.
The member states are under pressure to reach an agreement on the forthcoming MFF for 2014-2020, at the European Summit of 7 and 8 February. “Failure would undermine the stability of the Union. It would bring in considerable uncertainty”, Irish Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton summed up on behalf of the Irish Presidency, which will have its work cut out. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, is therefore calling on heads of state to “bridge their differences, and come to Brussels with the spirit of compromise and European responsibility to allow a political agreement to be reached (…), which will ensure that the financial resources are available to allow the Union to fulfil its legal obligations”.
Resounding “no” to cuts. But this will be far from being the case and from being enough to satisfy the European Parliament, as the heads of the main political groups have already stressed. Joseph Daul (France), on behalf of the EPP, wants “a realistic budget which continues to be a source of investment and growth”; he pledged that the political agreement would be rejected if “the detailed proposals we have at the moment are the ones which are adopted”. His Socialist counterpart, Hannes Swoboda (Austria), stressed for his part that his group would say “no to any budget which is not strong enough to fight social inequality”. Like Barroso, he expects the 27 to take account of youth unemployment when setting out the budget. The head of the Liberals spoke out against the budget cuts in this heading, even going as far as to say that it would be better to “stick with the 2013 budget, we would be better off!”
Flexibility, revision, own resources. Steadfast in their rejection of cuts in the budget, the MEPs and Barroso are particularly determined over the conditions to accompany the figures. On the one hand, flexibility between the years and budget lines so that any unspent money does not end up back in the national envelopes, but is used by European policies. “This is a commonsense approach which should allow us to make the best use of our resources”, stated Daul. On the other, a revision clause in order to readjust the financial framework in two or three years' time: “We will never accept an austerity budget for seven years. To do so would be giving up and believing in a permanent crisis”, he added. For the Liberals, Guy Verhofstadt is not optimistic and would even like a “sunset clause” in the event of a further crisis over the next multi-annual programming period (which he compared to the Soviet five-year plans). Lastly, “we need own resources”, said Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany), echoing other groups. This is key to avoiding “a budgetary deficit” due to the irresponsibility of the member states wanting “payment credits which are less than the commitment appropriations”, Daul stressed. It is necessary, therefore, to “reduce this unhealthy dependency on the uncertain resources of the member states”, said Swoboda, who expects the summit to deliver at least the roadmap on the own resources. But Verhofstadt already seems resigned over this point, and blames Berlin: “Germany does not want these and does not want a financial transactions tax in the budget”.
Denial of democracy. The MEPs also fiercely criticised the way the budget negotiations have been carried on at the Council. Daul spoke out against decisions made behind closed doors. “The Council makes its decisions alone, behind closed doors, in its corner. This is a denial of democracy! I feel like I'm at a market when I hear the negotiations underway, a market where everybody's come to buy their carrots and peas!” Specifically, Harms lamented the fact that “there is not enough criticism of the national attitudes of the heads of government”. Verhofstadt went to point out that, “in reality, we will have an agreement with exceptions, derogations, discounts!” Regretting the fact that all of the attention has been paid to the national envelopes, Barroso pledged to fight to keep the European dimension of the European budget.
In the event that the 27 reach a political agreement on the budget by the end of the week, the Parliament will takeits position, for or against, in the next 2 to 3 months. And in the view of the leader of the Liberals, it will “not just be a question of figures, but of a balance of power, is it the European Parliament who has the final say or the Council?” He pointed out that in a democratic system, the budgetary authority belongs to the Parliament. (MD/transl.fl)