Brussels, 18/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - The draft report on the mid-term revision of the multi-annual financial framework of the EU (MFF) for 2014-2020 will be presented at the meeting of the budgets committee of the European Parliament on 25 April.
This was announced on Thursday 18 March by the chair of this committee, Jean Arthuis (ALDE, France), at a hearing on the mid-term revision of the MFF at the budgets committee. He described the MFF as a “straitjacket” when crises occur. The Commission has been obliged to create a number of “satellite” budgetary instruments.
Jan Olbrycht (EPP, Poland), co-rapporteur on the EP's ideas ahead of this exercise, stressed that the Commission has a right of initiative in this area and makes a proposal to the Council, and the EP is allowed to say “yes or no”. However, the budgets committee wants to provoke a serious debate. “Where we are talking about revision, the Commission is talking about a review”, said the reporter. “A number of things need to be changed for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020” and for the longer term, Olbrycht said.
“The EU is not allocating itself the resources it needs for its policies these days”, said Isabelle Thomas (S&D, France), the other co-rapporteur on the revision of the MFF. There are the old priorities (growth, jobs), but new ones have joined them: the new investment tools, the Greek crisis, the refugee crisis. Thomas expressed regret at the “budgetary blueprint” situation. In the framework of the mid-term revision, we need to talk about budgetary flexibility, but also about upper limits, the basic principles, such as budgetary unity, Thomas added. “More and more is being externalised”, she said, referring in particular to the creation of 'off-budget' funds.
One of the experts invited to attend, Jacek Dominik, from the Polish Ministry of Finance, spoke of the lack of flexibility in the EU budget and therefore the need, even if it is not a perfect solution, to create instruments outside the EU budget. “Do we want more Europe? Then we have to spend more, not much more”, he said. He added that controls over EU expenditure had improved (agriculture, cohesion). He also criticised the payment arrears. “If nothing is done, we could end up with 25 or 30 billion in arrears”, he warned, going on to hit out at the gap between commitment appropriations and payment appropriations. “We need new financial instruments”, he also stressed. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)