Regional and local parliamentary representatives are calling for the member states' contribution to be increased from 1.04% to 1.3% of the gross national income (GNI), in an opinion by Marek Woźniak (EPP, Poland), which was adopted at the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions, on Thursday 1 February.
“The future EU budget must have greater financial resources to support common goals and policies. The EU cohesion policy must be closely integrated in the implementation of the strategic development vision of the EU post-2020”, the rapporteur of the opinion said.
They also call for the end to rebates and for the creation of new resources, for instance a new European corporate income tax, a financial transactions tax or a VAT levy.
As regards the cohesion policy, the Committee of the Regions stresses that the current budgetary percentage earmarked for the cohesion policy must be kept as it is for the next multiannual financial framework. This latter point corresponds to the principal request made by the Cohesion Alliance featured in the report of Michael Schneider (EPP, Germany) (see EUROPE 11787, 11738).
Increasing the expenditure ceiling to 1.3% of GNI corresponds to the level recommended by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11946). In an interview with EUROPE, the President of the Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, also called for an increase in this order, but said that in the event of a more restricted future European budget, the cohesion policy would have to “make efforts” (see EUROPE 11950). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)