In May 2018, the Commission presented plans for the next multiannual financial framework 2021-2027. The Parliament adopted its position in November 2018, and reconfirmed it in October 2019 and July 2020. The European Council reached a political compromise on 21 July 2020. Trilateral negotiations between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission started on 27 August.
The main requirements of the European Parliament
It was during the third round of negotiations on the long-term budget last Friday that Parliament’s negotiators reiterated their main demands, on the basis of a strong mandate from the plenary. Progress has been made on the principle of a binding roadmap for the three institutions on new EU revenue sources (own resources) and strengthening forward-looking programmes. Members of the European Parliament’s negotiating team on the multi-year financial framework stressed real increases and the need for new own resources to be sufficient to repay the ‘next generation EU’ recovery plan.
A desire to bridge the gap between the different positions taken
Members of the European Parliament say that “from the beginning, Parliament has demonstrated its willingness to bridge the gap between our respective positions. For example, we have reduced our demand for additional funding for EU programmes from more than 40 programmes to 15 flagship programmes, in line with Parliament’s resolution of 23 July on the agreement with the European Council”, which is expected to lead to budget cuts on some key EU programmes. Indeed, the EU’s flagship programmes such as Horizon Europe for Research or Erasmus will see their funding cut, which means that many research projects will not be funded and millions of young people will not be able to benefit from life-changing opportunities and better jobs. In the area of health, for example, with the envelope decided by the European Council, the lessons learned from the COVIDE-19 pandemic would be in vain, as the EU4Health programme has been reduced to less than one fifth of its proposed envelope by the Commission.
Towards a rapid launch of the European Union’s next long-term budget
A vote on the European Parliament’s full vote on the clean resources decision this week is expected to take place, a decision that is expected to allow the European Union to borrow 750 billion euros for the “Next Generation EU” stimulus package.