Strasbourg, 13/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - By a robust majority, MEPs have rejected the draft EU budget for 2014-2020 in the form negotiated by EU heads of state last month. This gesture of rejection is mitigated, however, by the fact that MEPs are not calling for the actual amounts to be renegotiated, but the European Parliament (EP) resolution gives a strong negotiating mandate to get the budget supplemented by national guarantees to avoid the EU running a deficit.
By a landslide 506 majority, MEPs adopted their resolution on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2014-2020 on Wednesday 13 March, which had been drawn up by the four biggest political parties. It rejects the Council of Ministers' line on the budget and “rejection” itself got voted through by 477 votes because an amendment had been tabled (mainly by the EPP) to have the word scrapped, but it was the amendment itself that was scrapped on Wednesday.
No deficit. The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said that governments wouldn't like it, but he pointed out that it was for the ministers to win the European Parliament's trust, not vice versa. He said the EP was not going to negotiate about money, but about priorities at political level and the structure of EU finance: “First of all, we don't want to enter the negotiations with a huge debt” and EU citizens don't want the EU itself to get into debt, which is what has got the member states into their current state.
Battle over unpaid bills. To clean up EU finances, the MEPs have the lever of a resolution about unpaid bills for 2012, wanting to avoid bills for 2013 to be added to the 2014-2020 budget. Rapporteur Ivailo Kalfin (S&D, Bulgaria) explains: “We have set out reasonable demands. First of all, we don't want to enter the negotiations with a huge debt. The gap between payments and commitments in the last three years has pushed the EU budget into deficit. We need to find a solution to the mountain of unpaid bills we have before us”.
Three lines in the sand. MEPs are calling for a flexible budget to enable cash to be shifted from one category and one year to another. Schulz says this is a way of dealing with the fact that too little funding has been allocated to some areas, but a binding mid-term review clause should be added to flesh out the lean budget. He said it simply wasn't possible to work with the 2005 figures until 2020. The review clause would let the European Parliament assess the MFF in the light of what might be a better economic climate in the future. We don't believe a crisis budget will be needed for the next seven years, explained the leader of the EPP Group, Joseph Daul (France). MEPs refuse to drop their demands for improvements to the own resources system to gradually move away from the EU being funded by taxpayers in the member states, which Daul described as “horrible blackmail”. The leader of the Liberals, Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium), echoed him, saying he was not prepared to wait seven more years to settle the own resource question.
Serious partners. Along with voting on the MEPs oft-repeated red lines, the vote on the resolution aimed to position the EP as a “serious partner for the Council”, said Schulz, using its stronger powers under the Lisbon Treaty. The leader of the Socialists and Democrats, Hannes Swoboda (Austria) explained: “Today's vote is a clear indication that the European Parliament has accepted the responsibilities given to it by the treaties and will fight for an improved budget for the EU. We are ready for serious negotiations and we hope that governments will be as serious and responsible as the European Parliament. We should work together for a result which is more responsive to the needs of citizens and to global competition”.
Next step - voting on a compromise. Pragmatically, the resolution gives rapporteurs Reimer Böge (EPP, Germany) and Ivailo Kalfin (S&D, Bulgaria) a negotiating mandate and instructions that agreement be reached in June. The joint leader of the Greens, Daniel Cohn-Bendit (France), doesn't think this is likely and urged his colleagues at the plenary to not just say yes to the resolution but to be prepared to reject the budget in June to make it clear to governments that things have to change. MEPs clearly rejected the idea of a secret ballot on the budget, endorsing by a huge majority an amendment lodged by the Conservatives for a transparent vote.
Agreement hoped in June. The Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers and the European Commission said on voting day that agreement is needed as a matter of urgency. Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski said the European Commission would continue to act as facilitator to help reach agreement between the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. The MFF for 2014-2020 must be ready on time to allow resources to be provided to help Europe get out of crisis, including simplified rules for accessing EU funding and a flexible European budget that can react to new developments. (MD/transl.fl)