The European budget for 2024, as negotiated in the Conciliation Committee with the EU Council (see EUROPE 13291/22), was adopted on Wednesday 22 November at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg by 519 votes to 79 with 30 abstentions. The EU Council had validated the agreement on 20 November (see EUROPE 13296/24).
“The EU budget for 2024 that we have negotiated provides an additional €807 million for the EU’s main priorities. This includes a €60 million boost for Erasmus+, an extra €6 million for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, €20 million allocated to support young farmers and a significant €150 million for our neighbourhood”, explained Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romanian), rapporteur on the subject.
He also stressed that the European Parliament had “persuaded the EU Council” to abandon the proposal for a €700 million reduction that it had put forward at the start of the negotiations.
In total, the 2024 budget sets an overall level of appropriations of €189.4 billion in commitments and €142.6 billion in payments.
The day before, a debate was held at the plenary session. The European Commissioner for Budget, Johannes Hahn, welcomed the fact that an agreement had been reached before the end of the conciliation period. “It is the first time since 2017”, he was keen to point out. “Having said that, the situation was far from usual, we are going through unprecedented crises”.
For Esperanza Samblás, Spanish Secretary of State and negotiator for the EU Council, this demonstrates that the institutions “can work effectively”.
However, several MEPs were keen to point out that this joint agreement was neither historic nor sufficient, given that all the flexibilities in the budget had been exploited. For many of them, the real battle ahead will be the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), on which a position from the EU Council is still awaited (see EUROPE 13280/4).
To see the summary figures by financial framework heading: https://aeur.eu/f/9mm (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)