The European Parliament is stepping up its warnings about the proposed structure for the post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). In a document dated Thursday 10 April, consulted by Agence Europe and containing compromise amendments to the European Parliament’s own-initiative report on the next MFF, the political groups opposed the European Commission’s idea (see EUROPE 13577/20) of a budget divided into 27 national plans and that of a ‘competitiveness fund’.
National plans. For the MEPs, the ‘one national plan per Member State’ approach “cannot form the basis for shared management expenditure after 2027”. Inspired by the Recovery and Resilience Facility model, this bilateral approach between the European Commission and each Member State sets Parliament aside. However, MEPs believe that “the design of shared management expenditure under the next MFF must fully guarantee Parliament’s role as legislator, budgetary authority and discharge authority”.
Competitiveness. The creation of a ‘competitiveness fund’, which would be one of the pillars of the new MFF envisaged by the European Commission, is one of the other new features. This fund merging existing programmes “is not suited to the objective pursued”, according to the MEPs, who prefer the use of “a new instrument based on a financing toolbox founded on the lessons learned from InvestEU and the Innovation Fund”.
Simplification. MEPs were in favour of simplification “for the final beneficiaries”, but this should not “mean more room for manoeuvre for the Commission without the necessary checks and balances”. It will therefore be necessary to reduce “unnecessary red tape” and give priority to a “single, user-friendly entry point for EU funding”, but MEPs write that a “simpler budget is also a transparent budget”.
A better budget. The rapporteurs Siegried Muresan (EPP, Romanian) and Carla Tavares (S&D, Portuguese) had identified in their draft report (see EUROPE 13570/13) that the repayment of the Next Generation EU post-covid loan would be one of the major challenges of the post-2027 MFF.
MEPs recall “the legally binding roadmap for the introduction of new own resources set out in the Interinstitutional Agreement”. A package of new own resources (CBAM, ETS2) has had to be decided by the EU Council since 2023. The European Parliament also calls on the Commission to “identify new, innovative and genuine own resources”. The new own resources should be used to safeguard funding for programmes while ensuring that “future generations do not bear the burden of past debts”.
The idea of a joint loan was included in the compromise amendments. This would be a “viable option for responding to serious crises at EU level”, according to MEPs. Security and defence are mentioned.
Generally speaking, MEPs attribute the EU’s difficulty in meeting its “major challenges” to the “historically restrictive and self-imposed level” of the 1% contribution of Member States’ gross national income (GNI) to the EU budget.
The own-initiative report will be voted on by the European Parliament Committee on Budgets on 23 April, then at the May plenary session (5-8). (Original version in French by Florent Servia)