MFF: every euro promised to the EU budget must be used

A genuine midterm revision of the EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is indispensable if the Union wants to respond to a number of current challenges and fulfil its political objectives, underlines a European Parliament resolution adopted today.

“The EU budget has been pushed to its limits. The built-in flexibility is not enough to address growing needs, as the past 2 years have shown clearly. Additional resources are required, current ceilings should be adapted and the flexibility of the budget enhanced,”  insisted Jan Olbrycht, European Parliament spokesperson on the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework and co-author of the resolution.

”The Parliament wants a top-up of the EU budget but also to show how to contribute to financing it,” he underlined. “Every euro, once committed to the EU budget, should be used. We want the amounts annulled according to sectoral policy rules to be put at the disposal of other pressing needs, like today’s actions in response to the migration and refugee crisis. Any surplus resulting from, for example, fines imposed on companies for breaching EU law or linked to the under-implementation of policies should be budgeted as extra revenue,” he insisted, a point already reflected in the EPP Group's strategy paper on the mid-term MFF revision.

“Today we present our evaluation of the budgetary situation in the Union and our priorities for the remaining years of the current long-term budget. We expect the Commission to act in a way that is determined and firm and to present a set of qualitative and quantitative changes to the MFF that will allow the EU to attain its political objectives and to adapt to today’s challenges. The EU budget must reflect the Union’s political commitments,” stressed Jan Olbrycht.

Additional background notes:

The report calls also for simplification in the functioning of EU policies and of the MFF provisions, to ensure easier access to European financing for beneficiaries across Europe. It requests concrete action to avoid the recurrent payment crisis in future and insists that delivering on the Europe 2020 strategy remains the main priority that needs to be supported by the EU budget.

By adopting the report, the Parliament also prepared the ground for the debate about the next Multiannual Financial Framework, including on the issues of its duration, flexibility, unity and own resources system.