At the plenary session in Brussels on Thursday 9 November, MEPs voted in favour of the consultative report by José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Portuguese) and Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe, French) (399 votes in favour, 138 against and 61 abstentions) amending the European Commission’s proposal for a new own resources package for the EU budget.
This proposal from June (see EUROPE 13205/2) included own resources based on the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), as well as a new temporary statistical own resource based on corporate profits.
Revenues are estimated at €36 billion (2018 prices), or around €45 billion a year in current prices, enabling the borrowing costs of the NextGenerationEU recovery instrument to be refinanced, even though a large part was earmarked for the Social Climate Fund.
At present, these discussions are taking place in the broader context of the need for the Union to deal with the current challenges, which have considerably reduced the margins of the EU budget, be they energy, climate or geopolitical. The revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework currently being negotiated, which calls for an increase in the net contribution of Member States, is also part of this process (see EUROPE 13280/4).
Hopes for the Spanish and Belgian Presidencies
After the vote, Mr Fernandes welcomed the European Parliament’s support for this new own resources package, but reiterated that he found it “unacceptable that the Council is continuing to postpone this decision. The EU is facing growing challenges and needs adequate resources to protect and support its citizens and businesses”.
On the Council side, however, some may speak up to drive the matter forward in the face of the increasingly urgent budgetary issue.
This is particularly true for countries such as Italy, France, Spain and Belgium. The explanatory statement to the European Parliament report also makes explicit reference to the Spanish and Belgian Presidencies of the EU Council, which are “seen as ‘opportune circumstances’ by many players”.
The debate on own resources raises broader questions about the future of EU financing. “Over-dependence on national contributions has led us to a dead end, with a budget stuck at 1% (of gross national income) (...) for almost eternity”, said Ms Hayer during the debate preceding the plenary vote.
“Will Europe be able to enlarge under these conditions, with even more members, but with the same anachronistic rules, the same way of financing our common future?” she asked, directly referencing the European Commission’s communication on EU enlargement the previous day (see EUROPE 13288/1, 13288/2).
Reductions for five Member States
Among the amendments adopted, the European Parliament is targeting the temporary reductions in the form of “lump sums” which Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden are benefiting from for the period 2020-2027 and which have increased “disproportionately” (see EUROPE 13254/21). MEPs are therefore calling for these lump sums to be adjusted annually in the same way as the EU budget, i.e. on the basis of a fixed deflator of 2% per year.
This amended text must next be adopted unanimously by the EU Council and ratified by all Member States before the three new own resources can come into force.
To see the adopted text: https://aeur.eu/f/9hq (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)