During a debate yesterday evening in the European Parliament on the future financing of the EU, S&D MEPs called for an end to an arbitrary cap of 1% of EU Gross National Income (GNI) being dedicated to the EU budget and insisted that new initiatives should not take money away from cohesion, youth, social or development aid.
S&D vice-president responsible for the EU budget, Isabelle Thomas MEP said:
“We need to prepare the future financing of the Union but neither its strategy nor the level of its ambition or its priorities have been defined. We do not accept any of the five scenarios put forward by the Commission and will work to secure our own vision and priorities for the Union.
“For the upcoming budget, we will refuse any agreement that does not give the EU the means to tackle the many challenges we face. It would be unacceptable if new defence and security commitments, in addition to the investment and migration programmes, were to take money away from those aimed at enhancing European solidarity such as cohesion, youth, social or development aid.
“We also want to see new own resources for the Union. Clearly the current system of member states squabbling over their contributions each year needs serious reform.”
Eider Gardiazábal Rubial, S&D Group spokesperson for the EU budget, said:
“National governments must put an end to the sacred cow of only spending 1% of EU Gross National Income (GNI) on the EU budget. You cannot keep asking the EU to do more while insisting on an arbitrary cap on the total amount of money it can spend. We have seen over the first four years of the current multiannual budget that this approach is not sustainable. It makes it impossible to respond to new challenges that are not foreseen when we first agree on the framework budget - as we saw with the migration crisis.
“Finding a sustainable way to fund the EU budget is even more essential now that the UK is leaving. To make up for the shortfall in the budget it is clear that we need to look at new and innovative solutions. We need to develop genuine own resources. The higher the revenue we raise through these the less dependent the EU will be on the yearly fight between member states over their contributions.”
