President Tajani on MFF: A more political budget reflecting European citizens’ priorities is needed 

“European Union resources should match our citizens’ priorities if we want to live up to the challenges ahead. To this end, the Parliament proposes to set the next budget at 1.3 % of the Gross National Income of the 27 Member States,” stated European Parliament President, Antonio Tajani.

“The additional budget shall not come from the pockets of our citizens and our report details possible avenues to increase the Union’s own resources, such as taxing web giants,” underscored President Tajani.

“Additional resources need to be devoted to boosting investment in the real economy. We want to develop modern European infrastructure and support EU industry, in particular our small and medium-sized enterprises, but also agriculture and services, including tourism.

“The European Union must be the leading global actor when it comes to research and innovation, supporting upgrading our citizens’ skills and let them benefit fully from the ongoing technological revolution”

Moreover, more resources would be needed to manage effectively the migratory flows and to protect European citizens:

“A Marshall Plan for Africa is essential. Furthermore, we need to substantially step up controls at our external borders and invest more on security, including cyber-security, and to develop a European defense industry.”

President Tajani concluded stressing that the Parliament will keep working hard with a view to adopting the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework before the end of the current mandate:

“This would be crucial to provide citizens and businesses with the stability they need. We shall avoid the risk of discontinuing important ongoing research project and investment in Europe.”

Background:

Today the European Parliament adopted a position on the Interim Report on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, based on the political priorities for the future of Europe, including exact figures for each EU policy and individual programme.

In order to achieve our ambitious objectives, the Parliament proposes that the budget should be set at EUR 1 324.1 billion in 2018 prices, representing 1.3 % of the Gross National Income of the 27 Member States.

A lower figure would imply cuts on cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy. These successful EU policies, positively impacting millions of citizens in particular in rural areas, should be maintained at least at 2014- 2020 programming period levels.

Furthermore, the Parliament proposes doubling the specific funding for small and medium enterprises, tripling the current budget for Erasmus+ and increasing to EUR 120 billion the funding for Horizon Europe, the Union programme supporting research and innovation. Tackling youth unemployment remains a priority with additional resources allocated in the framework of the European Social Fund.

In addition, the Parliament proposal foresees a strong budget for the external action, almost EUR 83 billion, including approximately EUR 50 billion devoted to establishing a strong partnership with Africa. Finally, the proposal allocates more than EUR 32 billion for Migration and Border Management, in line with the needs identified on the basis of the Commission proposals in this domain, and introduces a specific allocation for sustainable tourism that will trigger investment in one of the sectors with the greatest potential for employment.