On Tuesday 30 May, the European Commission adopted its draft EU budget for 2018, providing for an 8.1% increase in payment appropriations compared to 2017.
The MEPs welcomed the fact that the Commission has fed the results of the mid-term revision of the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) 2014-2020 into the draft 2018 budget, although the UK has not yet lifted its reservation over this agreement.
+8.1% is not over the top, says Oettinger. The draft budget for next year stands at €160.6 billion in commitments (+1.4% on 2017) and €145.4 billion in payments (+8.1%). The increase in payments can be explained by the fact that the EU structural and investment programmes for the period 2014-2020 are expected to reach cruising speed in 2018 (25% increase in funds earmarked under the cohesion policy). “This is not over the top on the Commission’s part: it is about implementing the projects requested by the EU countries in full respect of the MFF and European law”, the Budget Commissioner, Günther Oettinger, told the members of Parliament’s budgets committee.
MFF mid-term revision taken into account. The proposed budget falls within the limits of the MFF, but only assuming that the mid-term revision is formally adopted by the Council shortly after the UK general election of 8 June. If it is not, some of the proposed additional expenditure, such as the remaining €700 million in favour of the youth employment initiative over the period 2018-2020, would be under threat, and the Commission will probably have to use the budget under heading 2, which includes agriculture, to allocate extra funding for security and migration, the Commission explains in a press release. Oettinger told the MEPs that the Commission had evaluated the downgrading that would be brought about should be mid-term revision not enter into force. “We would have to prepare a new basis, heading by heading, programme by programme and project by project”, he warned.
Security and migration. The Commission plans to continue to fund a broad range of actions. Oettinger said that the mid-term revision was a huge relief, as it earmarks extra funding for these actions. The Commission is looking at €4.1 billion in 2018 in the fields of migration and security, bringing the global envelope allocated by the EU to migration and security to the unprecedented level of €22 billion (2015-2018). “We have been able to relieve the most directly affected countries by exercising genuine European solidarity”, the Commissioner said.
Extra money will also be available to fight the root causes of migration elsewhere, through support to third countries facing considerable migration flows, such as Lebanon and Jordan. The Commission has also provided an envelope of €232 million to be a credible partner in the framework of a new EU/Turkey agreement, Oettinger explained.
Defence. In 2017, the Commission launched so-called preparatory action for defence research work financed by the EU. A total of €90 million has been earmarked out of the budget for the period 2007-2019 (€40 million of which will be for 2018) to fund collaborative research in innovative technology and products in the field of defence.
Stimulating jobs and investment. The EU Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is already believed to have mobilised €194 billion in investments to date. In 2018, the Commission is proposing €16 million for the EFSI and an additional contribution of €2 billion to be allocated to the guarantee fund EFSI II.
The Commission plans to put an extra €770 million into the research programme Horizon 2020. The funding of the Juncker plan (EFSI) will not be at the expense of Horizon 2020, Oettinger stressed.
By the end of 2016, around 1.6 million young people had benefited from actions under the youth employment initiative, which has helped to reduce the youth unemployment rate in most member states. However, as unemployment levels are still higher than pre-crisis, it is vital that efforts and assistance at EU level continue.
An additional envelope of €1.2 billion is earmarked for the youth employment initiative over the period 2017-2020, made up of €233 million from the 2018 draft EU budget and €500 million in an amending budget for 2017, which has also been proposed.
The Commission is budgeting €55.4 billion for the structural and investment funds in favour of the regions and the member states and around €59.6 billion for farmers and rural development. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)