According to a public information document published on Tuesday 10 July, the Court of Auditors of the European Union considers that the proposed budget of the EU 2021-2027 should lay even greater emphasis on added value (see EUROPE 12013).
The auditors welcome the increased flexibility in the multiannual financial framework (MFF), a situation that should make it possible to deal with contingencies. However, they stress that changes in the priorities proposed between the areas of spending are neither clearly explained nor justified.
The Commission is proposing to change both the priorities and structure of the budget. A reduction in funding allocated is foreseen only for the 'natural resources and environment' heading, the Court notes, with a 15% cut in EU funding allocated to the Common Agriculture Policy.
At the same time, the Commission is proposing to increase the level of co-financing by the member states of the rural development programmes. For the other headings, it proposes increasing the total amount of financing by €115 billion, including €52 billion in fresh money. Increases of more than 10% are proposed for the 'neighbourhood and the world' heading (13%) and for the 'single market, innovation and digital' heading – covering research spending (43%) – as well as for the 'migration and border management' and 'security and defence' headings taken together (359%).
The auditors note that the EUROPE 2020 strategy will expire before the new MFF begins, and no new set of EU strategic objectives have so far been adopted. In fact, the proposed long-term EU budget does not financially reflect the political objectives of the EU for post-2022, but has become a tool to define these objectives.
This does not correspond to the usual or logical sequence of events, the auditors argue. They identify several new challenges to be faced before the new MFF starts: financial plan, solid performance frameworks, transparency of the new financing regimes, etc.
In absolute terms, the Commission's proposal for the 2021-2027 MFF represents an 18% increase on the 2014-2020 MFF (from €1.087 trillion to €1.279 trillion). However, looking at figures on a comparable basis, the real increase is 5%. In proportion to gross national income (GNI), however, the Commission considers that if the same comparison basis is applied, there is a reduction from 1.16% to 1.11%. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)