Following the tabling of over a thousand amendments - a “fair” and “manageable” order of magnitude, according to co-rapporteur Siegfried Mureşan (EPP, Romanian) - to the proposal for an interim report on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034 (MFF), the MEPs on the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) held a debate on Thursday 5 February, reviewing the priorities of the various groups.
The questions raised during the discussions concerned the size of the budget, the treatment of the debt relating to NextGenerationEU (NGEU), and the “sanctioning” of traditional policies such as cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), while new priorities - defence and competitiveness - are emerging. The issue of the governance proposed by the Commission through the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPP) was also raised, with particular emphasis on its lack of clarity.
Budget volume and debt. The co-rapporteurs, Siegfried Mureşan and Carla Tavares (S&D, Portuguese), advocate a 10% increase and the removal of NextGenerationEU repayments from the ceilings in order to prevent debt servicing from encroaching on programme margins.
Ahead of the debate, Siegfried Mureşan called for a €60 billion own resources package, including a possible digital tax.
Isabel Benjumea (EPP, Spanish) defended a “realistic” position, advocating 1.2% of gross national income (GNI) excluding NGEU and supporting the idea that reimbursements “should not reduce the resources” of policies.
Jean-Marc Germain (S&D, French), accepts a step of 1.4% of GNI, but is calling for the budgetary space to be used to eliminate the planned cuts to cohesion and the CAP and return to current levels.
Structure of the future MFF. Several groups questioned the structure of the NRPP with regard to issues linked to the merging of certain instruments and traceability.
The EPP and S&D representatives called for identifiable amounts and safeguards. The EPP suggested more pre-allocated national envelopes (and reduced flexibility), while the S&D is demanding “fixed sums” rather than percentages, particularly for the CAP, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Cohesion Fund and the European Social Fund (ESF+).
Similarly, Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe, French) called for a more detailed nomenclature in order to “better target” appropriations and allow political monitoring during implementation.
Competitiveness, transition and social issues. The EPP said it wants to strengthen Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ and the Connecting Europe Facility, but also to allocate more resources to internal security and border protection.
These issues were also raised by the PfE and ECR groups.
Bogdan Rzońca (ECR, Polish) gave priority to European public services and expressed reservations about national plans and the merging of several policies. The group supports greater investment in transport and energy network connectivity, border security, defence and migration management, as well as greater budgetary flexibility to respond to unforeseen crises, particularly natural disasters.
The S&D called for an increase in the ESF+ and a €100 billion guarantee for housing.
Renew Europe emphasised strategic autonomy (including defence) and health. Rasmus Nordqvist (Greens/EFA, Danish) called for the green transition to be taken into account “under all headings”, for biodiversity and nature funding to be preserved, and for resilience in the face of climate crises to be strengthened.
Europe in the world. With regard to the third pillar of the MFF, the EPP wants “separate lines” for the enlargement countries (Ukraine, Moldova, the Balkans) and mentions defending the territorial integrity of Greenland. The S&D would like to see additional funding for external action, particularly for North Africa, the Middle East and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Own resources. The rapporteur on own resources, Sandra Gómez López (S&D, Spanish), argued that own resources should guarantee “sufficient autonomy” for the EU. The 60 billion proposed by the Commission is “a minimum starting point”, which is considered insufficient given the priorities.
Mme Gómez López called for “new ideas” to be explored, including “the possibility of a digital tax”, and spoke of the debate on common indebtedness to deal with “a world that is becoming increasingly complex.
To see the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/kll
And the amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/klm ; https://aeur.eu/f/kln ; https://aeur.eu/f/klo ; https://aeur.eu/f/klp ; https://aeur.eu/f/klq (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)