S&D MEPs today gave their support to the EU 2020 budget, which they consider the most progressive one so far. For the first time ever, it devotes 21% of its budget to the fight against climate change, thanks to the efforts from the S&D Group, and will put a special emphasis on the Youth Initiative and the Erasmus programme.

Eider Gardiazabal, S&D spokeswoman on budget, stated:

“The most important thing now having managed to give a clear message on what the priorities for Europe are, is how are we going to pay for them.

“One out of every 5 euros in the budget is going to go to the fight against climate change. We still have a long way to go, but we are one-step closer to achieving our aim. This budget also manages to put the Youth Employment Initiative back on the table.

“I firmly believe that we have managed to reach a balanced agreement.”

Pierre Larrouturou, S&D negotiator on the EU 2020 budget, added:

“The negotiations were particularly hard. As usual. But we were successful on many issues because we were able to set clear priorities that are in line with our citizens’ expectations; climate protection and youth employment. Overall, we secured a budget with 1.9 billion above the Council's proposal.

“This is an excellent outcome, given the constraints that were upon us. Now, we are all asking ourselves the same question - what is our ambition for Europe, for our future and our children’s future? For high ambitions, we need a high budget. Our goal is to save our planet’s future and we know this budget is insufficient in that regard.

“We need to go further to win the climate battle. We have to halve emissions in the upcoming years, so we need to put in billions in order to win the climate battle. We are going to have to find new money. Nothing would be worse than a Green Deal without the proper money behind it. We need to come up with new solutions when it comes to own resources."

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