On Monday 9 October, the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets (BUDG) adopted (16 votes in favour, 4 against and one abstention) the draft report by Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romanian) for Section III - Commission - and by Nils Ušakovs (S&D, Latvian) for the other sections of the budget for 2024.
This vote follows the vote on the 1,170 budgetary amendments to the EU Council’s reading of the 2024 budget on 2 October (see EUROPE 13263/23).
Before proceeding to the vote, Mr Mureșan made a point of highlighting the events that have taken place in Israel (see other news) and returned to Heading 6, devoted to foreign policy (neighbourhood and world) and the aid provided for in the EU budget to finance the United Nations UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) agency. Part of this budget is earmarked for aid to Palestinian refugees.
“We want to do everything we can to ensure that the EU budget does not go into the pockets of an organisation that has direct links with Hamas”, said the rapporteur.
Although he urged a vote in favour of the compromise, given that 90% of these funds are linked to aid to Ukraine, Mr Mureșan said that all the budgetary implications needed to be considered, and this at a time when the European Commission had just announced that funding for Palestine was being suspended while checks were carried out (see other news).
With regard to the 2024 budget proposal, “if it seems to us that something in the European budget needs to be called into question, or frozen, we will propose amendments during the plenary vote”, he insisted.
The resolution and budget amendments will be debated and adopted at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg from 16 to 19 October.
The first conciliation meeting between the Council and Parliament is scheduled for 26 October.
To review the compromise amendments, go to https://aeur.eu/f/8yq (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)