On Thursday 16 November, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets (BUDG) went back over the agreement reached between the Parliament and the Council of the EU at the last meeting of the Conciliation Committee on the 2024 budget on Saturday 11 November (see EUROPE 13291/22).
The majority of MEPs welcomed the agreement, which “reflected Parliament’s priorities”, as explained by general rapporteur Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romanian).
“I really think it’s a good agreement”, he said. However, he pointed out that the Council had yet to adopt a revision of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), at the earliest at the December European Council (see EUROPE 13280/4), which would allow the changes to be incorporated into the 2024 budget via an amended budget.
“We have also made a joint declaration on our commitment to conclude the revision of the MFF; the Council is committed to reach an agreement by the end of the year”, he explained.
The provisional agreement on the 2024 budget sets an overall level of appropriations of €189,385.4 million in commitments and €142,630.3 million in payments.
It adds €666.5 million in commitment appropriations to the European Commission’s Draft Budgetary Plan, as amended by the Commission’s letter of amendment to finance the priorities requested by Parliament.
The increases include €250 million for humanitarian aid, €150 million for the NDICI-Global Europe, €85 million for Horizon Europe, €30 million for the Connecting Europe facility, €60 million for Erasmus+, €20 million for LIFE, €20 million for young farmers, €10 million for the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and €10 million for military mobility.
“It’s true that the increases are not spectacular”, concedes Eider Gardiazabal Rubial (S&D, Spanish). “But when you get into the detail (...), you know that it’s the people who are going to benefit”, she continues.
Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe, French) pointed out that the margin of €340 million available under the expenditure ceilings of the current MFF is equivalent to just 0.02% of GDP. “Nevertheless, the negotiation was important (...), it made it possible to restore the Council’s cuts and to have a few small extensions, so it’s really positive”, she said.
Although he also congratulated the European Parliament on its work, the shadow rapporteur, Dimitrios Papadimoulis (The Left, Greek), was keen to point out that “a budget that will barely exceed 1% of European GDP (...) is not enough. The European Parliament wanted a higher budget. If we take real inflation into account, the 2024 budget is lower than the budget we are applying for 2023”.
MEPs will vote on the Conciliation Committee’s provisional agreement at the plenary session in Strasbourg on 22 November.
For details of the 2024 budget (infographic): https://aeur.eu/f/9m8 (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)