The European Parliament needs to know about the member states' vision of the future of the European Union before it can put the finishing touches to its position on the outlines of the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) post-2020.
In Strasbourg, on Thursday 14 September, Parliament's committee on budgets examined a draft resolution providing an initial assessment of the Commission's reflection document on the future of the finances of the EU.
The draft resolution, which was prepared by Isabelle Thomas (S&D, France) and Jan Olbrycht (EPP, Poland) regrets the fact that four of the five scenarios provide for less money for cohesion and agriculture (see EUROPE 11823).
There are calls for extra money for the new political priorities. The draft resolution is calling for the ceiling of MFF expenditure (1% of EU gross national income) to be “smashed” in order to increase the EU budget significantly.
Parliament is calling once again for new own resources for the EU, arguing that this is the only possible option to adequately pay for the next MFF. The draft resolution does not touch upon the duration of the MFF, a matter which is dividing the Assembly (5, 5+5 or 7 years). The EU countries would prefer to stick with a period of seven years.
“It's hard to imagine what the Europe of tomorrow will look like”, Jean Arthuis (ALDE, France), the chair of the budget committee, acknowledged.
An own-initiative report this winter. Thomas recognised that the next own-initiative report on the forthcoming MFF (to be fed into by contributions from all of Parliament's committees and to be prepared over the winter) would have to take account of the announcements made by President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday 13 September, particularly on the Eurozone budget, public liberties, macro-conditionality and migrants.
Jordi Solé (Greens/EFA, Spain) called for a “greener” and more transparent EU budget and for a reform of the revenue side of the EU budget. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)