Parliament’s lead rapporteurs call for an EU budget that is equipped to respond to crises and meet citizens’ expectations.
On Tuesday, the European Commission has tabled a proposal to revise the EU’s multiannual financial framework (MFF 2021-2027) in light of increasing pressure on the EU budget due to rising interest rates and inflation and the cost of unforeseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
The co-rapporteurs for the EU’s multiannual financial framework (MFF), Jan Olbrycht (EPP, PL) and Margarida Marques (S&D, PT), said:
“We are pleased that the Commission has recognised the scale of the challenges and heeded Parliament’s call to revise the EU budget framework. Since the adoption of the MFF in 2020, the world has changed beyond all recognition. Following the pandemic, we now have a war in our neighbourhood, with multiple consequences, including high inflation and high energy prices.
We must support Ukraine, mitigate the economic and social consequences and build a more resilient and competitive Union. As things stand, the EU budget is not fit for purpose. It lacks the means and the flexibility to respond to the crises we face and to finance new needs and policies.
Parliament set out its position in a resolution adopted on 15 December 2022. Today is an important step forward in the process, and we will swiftly assess and respond to the Commission’s proposals.
We call on the Council to match its words with deeds. At Versailles in March 2022, the European Council stressed that Russia’s war of aggression was a tectonic shift in European history. Now is the time for the EU budget to reflect that.
Parliament will engage constructively. We will do everything we can to have in place by 1 January 2024 a revised MFF equipped to respond to crises and meet citizens’ expectations.”
The rapporteurs will prepare a resolution to react to the proposals, to be adopted by plenary in autumn, and look forward to negotiate with member states on a compromise for the revision of the MFF, in parallel with the talks about the annual EU budget 2024, to be in force by January.
The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) sets the annual limits (expenditure ‘ceilings’) on EU commitments in different policy areas (broad categories of spending called ‘headings’) and on overall annual payments for a period of at least five years, usually seven. The current framework for 2021-2027 was adopted in 2020 and provides for a review of the functioning of the MFF, with, as appropriate, proposals for a revision, by 1 January 2024.
