FR DE ES - EU Budget 2015 - outcome of the Conciliation meeting - Jean Arthuis (ALDE, FR), Chair of the EP #Budget Committee: “Weve got the feeling of suffering from #hemiplegia in this conciliation talks, so that only one half of the budgetary brain was functioning. On the main problem being the #unpaidbills, which amount has been growing gradually from 2010, starting at #5billion euro until the current level of almost #30billion. And this means that researchers, Erasmus+ students, NGOs, local enterprises... they are not receiving the money that is due to them. (...) We want to say to Council: pay your debts, the credibility of the EU is at stake. (...) After all this budget was prepared by Barrosos Commission, maybe this gives a chance to Mr Juncker to prepare a new budget which matches synergies between the 2015 budget and the #300billion investment programme. ES transl. EN Eider Gardiazabal (S&D, ES), Rapporteur EU Budget 2015: Our main priority is more investment in research, development and all what can help the European SMEs, this is our first area of work; but the second one, and we have insisted a lot on this issue during the unsuccessful negotiations, is the fact that we need to pay what we owe. It cannot be that the Commission has unpaid bills for almost 30 000 million euro because member states dont want to pay what they are due to pay. This is a cut on the budget, this is hampering mainly our enterprises, but not only them, also the Erasmus students that do not know if the money is there or not for them, the NGOs carrying out humanitarian projects which have to be stopped... and this is very serious. DE transl. EN Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, DE), Rapporteur EU Budget 2015, (Background: open invoices of the EU budget 2014 until 31/10 are representing an amount up to 6 Billion Euros, there is a solution to balance the EU budget): The European Union does control much more intensively and therefore there had been several penalty payments, when funding proposal had not been completed rightly, that means that at the other side of the account we find revenues of about 5 Billion, those are there to be used and the Member States dont even have to pay again. Those 5 Billion are really there and therefore we made the suggestion that if you pay 4.7 Billion for the open invoices; those old invoices, and on the other side you use those payments that return you would get a balanced EU budget. (...) (The reaction on that proposal) The Member states have refused to accept this proposal, because there are some Member states that would like to go home with some money, which means, that the penalty payments are going directly to their National budget, instead of giving it directly to the project leaders who are in financial difficulties. And like this they can polish up their national budgets, which is of course a way that is completely unacceptable. FR transl. EN Gérard Deprez (ALDE, BE), Rapporteur EU Budget 2014: On the main errors of the Council; first, it has devoted too much time in trying to meet the objections and expectations of the UK and other parties, trying to agree on a reevaluation the national contributions; second, it is very annoying that Council has been dealing with this negotiations as a game in which if he gives up, they loose and we win, and the real problem is that there is a huge deficit of payments of almost 23 billion and Council does not want to see this; third, Parliament wants to use exceptional windfall revenues from fines to settle some of the most urgent bills of the Commission (around 4.7 billion). Yet member states said they would prefer to channel the extra income back into their national budgets. (...) There is an opportunity for Junkers Commission now to set up a new proposal. There is no need to build it up from scratch, but the Commission knows well where the problems lie and which are our priorities for 2015 Budget... everything is now in hands of the Commission and in the intelligence and sensitivity of its new proposal and so far I am confident. © Frédérick Moulin 2014 - EU2014 - All rights reserved.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 08:56:46 +0000
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