On Tuesday 9 October, the members of the European Parliament's budgets committee called upon the member states to do the necessary to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament as soon as possible on the multiannual financial framework (MFF) of the EU for 2021-2027.
The budgets committee has examined the draft interim report, which defends an ambitious position on the 2021-2027 MFF (see EUROPE 12107).
The draft report, authored by Jan Olbrycht (EPP, Poland), Isabelle Thomas (S&D, France), Janus Lewandowski (EPP, Poland) and Gérard Deprez (ALDE, Belgium), restates the Parliament's official position, which is that the level of the 2021-2027 MFF should be set at €1324.1 billion in 2018 prices, or 1.3% of the GNI (gross national income) of the EU27. The Commission proposed 1.11% of GNI. The report on the next MFF is to be adopted by the budgets committee on 5 November and examined by the Parliament during the plenary session to be held in Strasbourg from 12 to 15 November.
The chair of the Parliament's budgets committee, Jean Arthuis (ALDE, France), acknowledged that it will be far easier to get an agreement at the Parliament than one between the Assembly and the Council. "We will need to have our arguments ready", he stressed.
Two new additions. Thomas said that the Commission's proposal was not a serious one and stated that the report on the 2021-2027 MFF had two new additions: - changes have been made to the Commission's proposal as in a co-decision report; - the report contains a table with the budgets of the various programmes.
Concerning the rule of law mechanism, Olbrycht stressed the need not to penalise the end beneficiaries.
A cautious approach to own resources. Lewandowski recognised that the Parliament was not terribly inventive on own resources and that the citizens needed reassurance. The creation of new own resources should not increase the fiscal burden on the shoulders of European taxpayers, he said – a remark that was taken up by many MEPs.
The Parliament hopes to add a digital services tax and a financial transactions tax to the basket of new resources proposed by the Commission.
Deprez spoke of a cautious approach to the 'revenue' plank of the MFF: "we know that there is a broad range of positions on the part of the member states; some of them want nothing to change". He acknowledged that the Parliament has no say on own resources.
José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Portugal), argued that the Council needs to do its bit towards reaching an agreement under this legislative period, which would be in the interests of the EU and its citizens.
He criticised the negative effects of delay: interruptions to payments (Erasmus, agriculture, cohesion) and legal uncertainty. 1.3% of GNI is a reasonable objective, in his view.
Daniele Viotti (S&D, Italy) also counselled caution over own resources.
Bernd Kölmel (ECR, Germany) went against the grain, calling for a rigorous budget and cuts to the agricultural and cohesion funds.
Jordi Solé (Greens/EFA, Spain) called for improvements to be made to the report by means of amendments. He argued that the content is more important than reaching an agreement before the European elections of May 2019.
The Commission noted that work was making swift progress at the Council, with a debate on Wednesday 10 October at the level of ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) and on 16 October at the General Affairs Council. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)