04/07/2017 (Agence Europe) – In Strasbourg on Tuesday 4 July, the European Parliament approved draft amending budget no. 2 for 2017, which recycles the 2016 surplus, standing at €6.405 billion (see EUROPE 11812), into the 2017 budget. In its adoption (556 votes to 79 with 61 abstentions) of the report by Jens Geier (S&D, Germany), Parliament calls on member states to take the opportunity offered by this surplus budget to honour “their pledges in relation to the refugee crisis and to match the Union contribution to Union trust funds and to the new European Fund for Sustainable Development”. (LC)