The European Parliament’s rapporteur on the 2023 budget, Nicolae Ştefănuță (Renew Europe, Romanian), said, on Thursday 13 October, that the EU budget was not sufficiently equipped to deal with the current crises.
“The EU budget is equipped with a bow and arrow from 2017, the year when negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 started” in the EU institutions, Mr Ştefănuță told some journalists gathered in Brussels. He recalled that since 2017, five successive crises - Covid-19, energy, the Russian invasion of Ukraine... - have taken place.
The plenary vote on the 2023 Draft Budgetary Plan will take place on Wednesday 19 October (see EUROPE 13040/18). The result should be very close to the one in the Committee on Budgets, as all political groups are united, according to Mr Ştefănuță. He emphasised the efforts made to forecast realistic figures, despite the fact that this is an extraordinary year.
The rapporteur pointed out that the appropriations had been increased for the needs arising from the war in Ukraine (+€853 million, including €200 million for the Erasmus+ programme, compared to the draft budget presented by the Commission).
Nicolae Ştefănuță said he was in favour, as were most MEPs, of a rapid review of the current MFF, which could start in mid-2023. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)