Brussels, 12/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Tuesday 12 July, Mario Monti, the president of the high-level group on own resources of the EU, said that the 'income' aspect of the EU budget could help towards achieving political objectives.
The former Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, told the budgets committee of the European Parliament that there could be solutions to be set in place at European level as regards income, rather than just expenditure. The idea would be to devise “own resources related to an objective, priority or policy”. He referred to examples of own resources that would make it easier for the citizens to understand what the EU does: - financial stability and fighting tax evasion; - tax on transactions or financial activities; - the environment and the fight against climate change; - the carbon tax; - the revenue from the EU emissions trading system; - the fuel tax, “which could be an own resource for the EU budget”; - increasing investments in the EU or the area by means of ad hoc resources. This list is not exhaustive, Monti, stressed, adding that mobilising new own resources could “make the EU's actions clearer to citizens”.
Echoed by many members of the EP, Monti voiced criticism of the proliferation of budgetary instruments outside the EU budget due to the refugee crisis (trust funds, facilities for refugees in Turkey, etc). “The high-level group is well aware of the holes in these solutions, which are not satisfactory from the point of view of democratic control”, Monti stressed. He questioned whether these instruments are effective, “particularly in emergency situations which turned into more structural crises”. He acknowledged that these solutions have been found in order to avoid debates on revising the MFF. “We have to wonder whether a higher number of autonomous own resources would have made mechanisms of this kind superfluous”.
Other income. There is an 'income' component of the European budget which is not related to own resources: other income, not decided upon by an resources decision but under derivative law (fines in competition matters, emission surplus premiums for new cars and other budgetary measures in the field of the environment and energy). “These measures, which have not yet been used, have to be justified by political objectives, but could be devised to contribute to the European budget”, said Monti.
“What you have said to us fully responds to our expectations and our impatience”, said Jean Arthuis (ALDE, France), the chair of the budgets committee of the EP. He stressed the need to respect the budgetary unity and legibility of the budget. “The European citizens need to be able to understand the EU budget”, he recommended.
No more Community budget, says Lamassoure
Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), who is a member of the high-level group, said that the “MFF 2014-2020 is completely inadequate for the new needs of the EU”. We have to ask the following questions: is the MFF still justified? Should the traditional European budget be completely overhauled? He criticised the “constellation of inter-state budgets” set in place to pay for the new needs. He said that there is no longer a Community budget, because whenever we have to find new funding in the budget, we take it “from the funding of common European assets”, as these are budgetary lines which are “pre-allocated to the member states”.
Launch of new policies? Lamassoure said that Brexit would oblige the EU to review a number of things, starting with resources based on the GNI (gross national income) of the EU. “No more UK means no more British cheque, therefore no more rebate”. Lamassoure feels that another potential effect of Brexit could very well be that in the next few months or year, “a number of political initiatives will be taken to launch new policies, probably in the framework of the legal form of enhanced cooperation”. He referred to possible initiatives in the field of defence or the energy union. This will require a reinvention of the Community budget, according to Lamassoure, who also acknowledged that the EU finance ministers “have little appetite” for launching a budgetary capacity for the eurozone just at the minute.
A major conference will take place in early September 2016 between members of the European Parliament and the national parliaments on the subject of the EU own resources. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)