On Monday 8 April, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets approved changes to the EU’s current budget, following February’s revision of the multiannual financial framework, which resulted in an increase of €5.8 billion (see EUROPE 13341/1). Sixteen elected members voted in favour, one against and one abstained.
The report, presented by MEP Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romanian), makes only minor changes to the original legislative text. The major budgetary changes - the €50 billion for the Ukraine Facility and the €376 million increase in the European Defence Fund - are widely supported.
The same applies to the ‘Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans’, which will have an initial tranche of €500 million for 2024.
The rapporteur for the text stresses that this amending budget will make the 2024 budget “better adapted, more flexible and better equipped to meet the challenges facing the Union”.
The text still has to be formally approved at the plenary session on 25 April. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)