Brussels, 02/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 July in Strasbourg, a majority of MEPs welcomed the agreement on the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2014-2020, despite the rather strong criticism from within the ranks of the Greens and the GUE/NGL. On Wednesday 3 July, the EP will vote on a resolution on its political assessment of the compromise obtained. It will vote on the legal texts in September or October.
Gay Mitchell (EPP, Ireland) described the Irish Presidency of the EU Council as a “success”. A little earlier, Joseph Daul, the president of the EPP, welcomed the agreement on the MFF. He underlined the importance of this budget in the fight against youth unemployment and added that “with the additional €10 billion from the EIB, Europe will also be able to fund SMEs”.
Hannes Swoboda (S&D, Austria) said that an agreement on the MFF could have been obtained earlier. He pointed out that the money released would help the poor and fund action to tackle youth unemployment and help research. He added: “We need the (budgetary) flexibility, which we have been fighting for so that the money planned really is spent instead of going back to the treasuries of EU countries”. He also sharply criticised the arrogance and obscene behaviour displayed by some players in the banking sector who are asking for bonuses. Swoboda called for banking union.
Anne Jensen (ALDE, Denmark) said that “it is incredible that we've been successfult” and noted that the MFF is “a little less ambitious than what we had wanted” (too much for farming, she said). Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/EFA, France) said: “I don't understand the self-satisfaction”. Addressing the Irish prime minister, he said that the EU did not have a budget able to take on the challenges created by the crisis. He said that the agreement had been obtained “on the cheap”, with €9 billion for young people agreed to by the EP president, Martin Schulz (S&D), despite the fact that the Social Democrat (SPD) candidate in Germany, Peer Steinbrück, had said that what was needed was “at least €20 billion to be able to tackle youth unemployment”. Cohn-Bendit wanted to know, “who they were trying to kid”. By refusing to veto the MFF, the EP had lost the chance to resist national selfishness as advocated by David Cameron and said that “when we asked for a European budget with its own resources, they told us no”. He continued, there is “nothing” on own resources in the 2016 review on the MFF. He concluded by saying that government leaders wanted power over Europe but not democratic power monitored by Parliament.
Richard Ashworth (ECR, United Kingdom) described the agreement on the MFF as a “great success”. He did, however, highlight the fact that stability should not be used as a substitute for discipline and that it had to be ensured that there was absorption of the funding for SMEs and the fight against youth unemployment.
Paul Murphy (GUE/NGL Ireland) said that the agreement on the MFF was the first austerity budget in the history of the EU.
On the question of the MFF, the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, said that “we listened to the EP”, which called for benchmarks (flexibility, revision clause, budget unity and own resources) in exchange for approval of the amounts agreed (€960 billion) by the February European Council. It was the EP that advocated a certain number of important measures (making resources for research and innovation available as soon as possible, flexibility as a means of promoting the fight against youth unemployment and maintaining the current level of assistance to the poor), explained Kenny. He said that the EP had made the MFF into a better instrument and that the member states had respected the role and mandate of the EP. He added that they had also done their best to respect the role and mandate of the Council.
Important results under Irish presidency
Kenny spoke of six “full and productive” months and that the Presidency under his leadership had achieved “important results”. He said that he was happy to announce the results they had achieved and that they had met their commitments. He believed that the EU's credibility had been strengthened in the eyes of its co-citizens. Among the results he underlined were those obtained in the following areas: banking union (single supervisor, rules on financing own funds and capital; rules on rescue plans and resolving lending agency bankruptcies); - measures to promote job creation, growth and SMEs; - launching negotiations on the trade agreement with the US (he added that the transatlantic relationship should be open and one of equals; - reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP); - Erasmus programme + (€16 billion budget); - European globalisation adjustment fund. He highlighted the need to put an end to the scourge of youth unemployment and in this context welcomed the agreement on the “youth guarantee”. (LC/transl.fl)