MEPs from the Committee on Budgets unveiled, on Thursday 15 October, the results of the vote on budgetary amendments to the EU Council's position on the EU's 2021 budget by increasing (by a total of €14.1 billion) the envelopes of the EU's flagship programmes (HorizonEurope, InvestEU, Connecting Europe Facility, Erasmus+...).
This approach is in line with the demands of the European Parliament negotiating team on the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 and the Recovery Plan (see other news).
The report by Pierre Larrouturou (S&D, France) on the 2021 budget, which accompanies the budget amendments, will be adopted by the European Parliament Committee on Budgets on 28 and 29 October. The Parliament will adopt its position on the 2021 budget on 11 or 12 November in plenary session.
The result of the vote on the 2021 budget will need to be reopened to incorporate the letter of amendment that the European Commission will have to present to take account of the final agreement, still to be sealed, on the MFF and the Recovery Plan.
MEPs retained the following principles in the amendments on the 2021 budget: an increase in appropriations for EU flagship programmes, accompanied by a corresponding rise of the ceiling of the given MFF heading.
The amendments also aim to implement a level of spending in 2021 of 10% for biodiversity measures and a level of spending of 30% for climate and environmental actions.
It also plans to make use of the possibilities provided for in the Financial Regulation and to fully re-use ‘decommitments’ in the field of research.
Funding for the Parliament's priorities is increased, particularly in the areas of security, migration, fundamental rights and external action. MEPs are to make full use of the amounts available under the Flexibility Instrument and partially under the Contingency Margin in order to finance those reinforcements. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)