“Dear EPP colleagues, you are preparing to vote on amendments that are unacceptable to our group”, declared Jean-Marc Germain (S&D, French) during the debate on the guidelines for the 2026 budget at the European Parliament’s plenary session on Monday 31 March.
The French MEP was referring to at least two amendments from the EPP group and another from 45 EPP MEPs on border protection, migrant return policies and the end of EU funding for UNRWA.
Tabled after the vote in the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets (see EUROPE 13610/16), these amendments prompted Rasmus Andresen (Greens/EFA, German) to say that “all the democratic forces in this House must adopt a common position on these issues and not allow themselves to be influenced by the far right”.
EPP budget coordinator Karlo Ressler (EPP, Croatian), on the other hand, regretted that “in recent years” the European Parliament “has not always adopted its own guidelines” and called for everyone to take responsibility to “prevent such a sign of weakness from happening again”, suggesting that MEPs should not block the text because of these amendments.
A source told Agence Europe (see EUROPE 13610/16) that these amendments had been tabled by the EPP so that its MEPs could “vote for a reasonable text without endorsing extreme positions”.
Aware of the risk of non-adoption of the guidelines for the 2026 budget, the text’s rapporteur, Andrzej Halicki (EPP, Polish), warned that these guidelines “put [the] credibility [of the European Parliament] as an institution on the line” and called on MEPs to prove that they are “capable of overcoming [their] political differences and that [they are] united in [their diversity] for the common good”. The MEP pointed out that “the adoption of these guidelines is a key stage in the budgetary procedure”. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)