Following on from the S&D (see EUROPE 13672/23) and EPP (see EUROPE 13663/8) groups, the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament shared its position on the post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), on Tuesday 8 July.
Like the S&D, the Liberals are warning “against attempts to renationalise the Union’s budget” embodied in the national and regional partnership plans devised by the European Commission.
Renew Europe’s position can be summed up in a slogan around which its priorities are structured: “More Europe”, in the structure of the budget, but also in terms of objectives and values.
The MFF must not risk “losing sight of EU-added value” and must finance European public goods “such as cross-borders infrastructures, security, food sovereignty, health preparedness, joint defence action or crisis prevention and preparedness, climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience as well as and biodiversity protection”, Renew Europe explained.
More specifically, Renew Europe is calling for the MFF to give priority to funding projects that “national budgets have no natural incentive to” to or that they “will not do as efficiently”, for reasons of economies of scale and skill-sharing.
Renew Europe supports the creation of the Competitiveness Fund (see EUROPE 13677/1) and calls on the EU to increase its long-term budget. To make this budget more European, the political group supports the adoption of new European own resources that are “stable (...) with a clear link to EU policies”, which would allow the EU to be less dependent on contributions from its Member States.
The values of “freedom, democracy and equality” should be reflected in all projects funded by the EU, according to Renew Europe, which wants to “systematically condition the release of EU funds to the respect of EU values”. In this respect, the EU should not hesitate to freeze the funds of “illiberal governments”.
Respect for equality among citizens, with a focus on women and minorities, should also be a condition for the allocation of funds, “both in the EU and Union and across the world”. The group also supports the Commission’s objective of focusing partnerships with third countries more on the EU’s geopolitical interests.
See Renew Europe’s position: https://aeur.eu/f/ht0 (Original version in French by Florent Servia)