EU budget: No to 27 separate shopping lists

"We are disappointed. Key red lines set by the European Parliament have been ignored. In its current form, we cannot give the long-term budget a green light," declared Siegfried Mureșan MEP, EPP Group Vice-President and the Parliament’s chief negotiator on the next long-term EU budget, after the European Commission unveiled today its planned.

"Neither the EPP Group nor the European Parliament will approve a budget that promotes individual national plans and that does not fully respect the Parliament’s legislative and budgetary role. What the Commission proposes is merely rebranding. We are here for substance, not slogans. Europe needs a shared vision, not 27 separate shopping lists. A real EU budget cannot be reduced to the lowest common denominator of national preferences," Mureşan stressed. 

"We will reject any budget that fails to ring-fence sufficient funding for both the Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion Policy, or where our farmers must compete with our regions for EU funding. These are not bargaining chips. These are pillars of the European project. They must be protected, not traded away," Mureșan continued. 

"Europeans deserve a budget that is transparent, efficient, and truly European. Let there be no doubt: without genuine partnership with the European Parliament, there will be no agreement. No partnership, no budget," Muresan concluded.