The European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets called, on Wednesday 16 March, for a “future-oriented” 2023 EU budget with sufficient funds to deal with the consequences of the war in Ukraine triggered by Russia.
The Committee adopted (32 votes in favour, 4 against and 4 abstentions) the draft report by Nicolae Ştefănuță (Renew Europe, Romania) on the budget guidelines for 2023.
MEPs note that despite encouraging signals pointing to economic growth in 2022, uncertainty persists, notably due to high energy prices, rising inflation, the continuing Covid-19 pandemic and the consequences of the invasion of Ukraine.
The draft report also emphasises the significant public and private investments needed to close the investment gap in the green transition and to meet binding climate targets.
MEPs therefore call for “ambitious resources for programmes supporting climate and biodiversity action and environmental protection”.
The so-called ‘Rule of law’ conditionality mechanism must be applied “immediately and in full”, say the MEPs, who regret that the Commission has not yet implemented it, even though it came into force on the 1 January 2021.
MEPs have expressed deep concern at the significant deterioration of the Rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights. They call for an ambitious level of resources for EU programmes such as the ‘Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values’ programme or the ‘Justice’ programme.
Invasion of Ukraine. MEPs condemn Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine and all attempts to destabilise the EU’s partners in the Eastern Neighbourhood. They urge the EU to “guarantee significant funding to address the geopolitical consequences of the current crisis including support for the deployment of humanitarian and preparedness measures in the Member States and in the Eastern Neighbourhood for welcoming refugees”. The Commission and the Member States are invited to “mobilise all available financial means to support Ukraine”.
The European Parliament plenary vote on this report is scheduled for 4 April. The Commission is expected to present its proposal for the 2023 budget in June 2022. Next year’s budget is to be negotiated between the EU Council and the Parliament by the end of the year. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)