Brussels, 22/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Almost €900 billion from the EU 2013 budget was spent in 2007-2013 to help 500 million European citizens in one way or another, and several million others outside Europe, says the new European commissioner for financial programming and the budget, Jacek Dominik, at the beginning of a financial report for 2013, published by the European Commission on Tuesday 22 July.
The EU budget stood at €144 billion in 2013 and 94% of this went to EU countries and EU projects helping researchers, students, SMEs, farmers, towns, regions and NGOs. This 2013 budget was marked by difficult negotiations between the EU institutions on payment appropriations (with a reinforcement of €11.2 billion for paying the arrears).
The European elections demonstrated an increase in eurosceptic and extreme sentiments “in contradiction to the ideas of solidarity and shared responsibility”, says Dominik. He believes that the EU must be strong in order to “offer European citizens, enterprises and regions the funding they need to go ahead”. Dominik concludes: “I am convinced that behind the figures [in the report] you will see the positive impact the EU budget has had on the lives of millions of people”. (LC)