On Wednesday 19 October, the European Parliament adopted its position on the draft budget for 2023, with an increase of €1.7 billion in commitments compared to the European Commission’s draft.
The European Parliament has planned an ambitious draft budget for next year, commensurate with the challenges facing the EU: €187.3 billion in commitment appropriations and €167.6 billion in payment appropriations. The plenary confirmed the work done by the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets (see EUROPE 13040/18).
The vote on the European Parliament’s position kicks off 3 weeks of negotiations (conciliation procedure) with the EU Council in order to reach an agreement on next year’s budget, which will then have to be adopted by the Parliament and signed by the institution’s president.
The European Parliament cancelled almost all the cuts made by the EU Council (more than €1.6 billion) and thus restored the draft budget to the level originally proposed by the Commission in the budget lines concerned. In addition, MEPs increased funding for the following priorities:
Consequences of the war in Ukraine. With a total of €853 million added to the Commission’s draft budget, MEPs bolstered funding for initiatives that support young refugees through Erasmus +, the European Solidarity Corps, Ukrainian researchers through actions such as Marie Curie (Horizon Europe) and boosted programmes including: Humanitarian Aid (with €250 million), the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (with €100 million), the Border Management and Visa Instrument (with €25 million), the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument for the EU’s southern and eastern neighbourhood (with €162 million) and the European Defence Fund and Military Mobility (with €80 million).
Energy and climate. With an additional €533 million, MEPs want to increase the EU’s energy independence and help citizens and SMEs cope with high energy bills while supporting the green transition and biodiversity.
In addition, MEPs restored the €200 million cut by the EU Council to the EU4Health programme and added €25 million.
The European Parliament adopted (421 votes in favour, 137 against and 82 abstentions) the report by Nicolae Ştefănuță (Renew Europe, Romanian) and Niclas Herbst (EPP, German) on the 2023 draft budget, which accompanies the budget amendments.
The European Parliament rejected an amendment by The Left calling on the Commission to include in its second basket of own resources for the EU budget “an appropriate tax on financial transactions, which could raise more than €50 billion per year, as well as an ambitious tax on large multinational companies”.
Revision of the MFF. The European Parliament is calling for a rapid revision of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Nicolae Ştefănuță, reiterated that the MFF should be revised as soon as possible: “We can’t go on like this”, he told a press conference. He insisted that more room for manoeuvre is needed.
“Reduced margins, new initiatives proposed by the European Commission and a lack of flexibility highlight the inadequacy of the MFF. It no longer meets needs and urgently needs to be revised”, argued José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Portuguese).
In addition, adopting part of an amendment tabled by François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP, French) and others, the European Parliament said it was “deeply concerned” that the Commission had recently financed or co-financed campaigns promoting the Islamic veil.
Finally, the European Parliament is asking to reconsider the whole project on the future of the Spaak building in Brussels and, by just one vote, it does not oppose the acquisition of the Osmose building in Strasbourg (contrary to what was proposed in an amendment by the S&D group). “This majority allows us to take a further step towards occupying the Osmose building and thus strengthening the Strasbourg seat”, said a delighted Anne Sander (EPP, French). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)