EP to Council: end rebate logic after Brexit - we all benefit from EU budget

“The EU budget must be strengthened without penalising taxpayers. Post-2020, we have to stop rebates, compensations and end the logic of ‘juste retour’ and ‘I want my money back’”, stated José Manuel Fernandes MEP, EPP Group Spokesman in the European Parliament’s Budgets Committee, after the committee vote on the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Fernandes added: “We must end the distinction between net payers and net payees, as all Member States are beneficiaries of the EU budget.”

Along with its position on the post-2020 MFF, lawmakers also adopted recommendations on the reform of the Union's own resources. Both the adopted positions reflect the EPP Group’s vision of the future EU without the UK.

On the expenditure side: “The EPP Group aims to provide for the continuation of the Union’s well-established policies and for the financing of new European priorities, despite Brexit changing the EU and its budget”, stated Jan Olbrycht MEP, co-responsible for the European Parliament's position on the EU long-term budget after 2020.

Now, Olbrycht is awaiting a reaction from the Council: “If Member States want to cut the budget, they should clearly state from which common actions they want to resign. We also expect a clear declaration about the desired end of the negotiations. The Parliament is ready to enter into the discussions immediately after publication of the Commission's proposal.”

On the revenue side, the Budgets Committee voted on a reform of the current EU's own resources system: "The current system is complex, non-transparent and promotes the budgetary logic of ‘juste retour’, where Member States try to get as much out of the budget as they put in. We need a simpler system that is more understandable for European taxpayers and that reduces the GNI contribution of the Member States”, stated Janusz Lewandowski MEP, co-responsible for the European Parliament's position on the reform of the EU's current own resources system.

Both Reports are to be voted in Plenary in the March II session in Strasbourg. They provide the Parliament’s input to the Commission’s legislative proposals on these matters due in May 2018.