Renew Europe is proud to have played a pivotal role in shaping the reform of the European Union's budgetary system, after an agreement was secured today following long negotiations with the Council on the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and the own resources. This deal is a major success for European citizens, faced with a severe health, economic and social crisis.
Renew Europe particularly welcomes the following key components of the deal:
- EU budget autonomy : a comprehensive timetable for the introduction of new own resources including a contribution on plastics waste that will come into force in 2021, a digital tax, a carbon border adjustment mechanism, the revenues from the internal carbon market by 2023, and a financial transaction tax (FTT) to be introduced by 2026 at the latest.
- Additional investments: the budget foreseen for a number of important EU programmes hollowed out by the Council will be increased significantly through the creation of new mechanisms, to the tune of 16 billion EUR. Health EU will be tripled, Research and Innovation programmes will get closer to the 3% GDP ambition, Right and Values will be doubled, InvestEU, ERASMUS and Frontex strengthened. This will allow the Union to learn lessons from COVID pandemic supporting better our healthcare professionals, reinforce its actions to better defend our values, support our youth, our entrepreneurs and better protect our borders.
- Climate & biodiversity: in keeping with Renew Europe's desire for a genuine transition to tackle climate change, the deal ensures a horizontal minimum commitment of 30% for climate spending and a new target for biodiversity expenditure reaching 10% as of 2026.
In addition, the compromise reached ensures that parliamentarians will be involved in the monitoring and evaluation of assigned revenues with a real right of scrutiny for MEPs.
Time is now pressing for the recovery funds to support EU economy. Today's compromise should now pave the way for the implementation of the European recovery plan. With the overall package agreed over the last days, the Union must now emerge as power where prosperity is all the more solid when it is accompanied by shared values thanks to the rule of law conditionality.
Dacian Cioloş, President of the Renew Europe Group, said: "I warmly thank our negotiating team who succeed in moving the lines of the July’s Council agreement on key parameters of the deal for the Renew Europe’s family. In the coming years, the cumulative impact of the European budget and the recovery plan will be a game-changer, with tangible effects for all European citizens, in particular the younger generation who face considerable challenges. I am delighted that with this agreement, Europe will better support our healthcare professionals, our students, our researchers as well as our entrepreneurs. With a very clear common vision, this agreement will make it possible not only to repair, but also to transform our economy around the Green Deal and the Digital Agenda. The Union will now be able to emerge as a real power where prosperity is all the more solid when it is accompanied by shared values."
Valérie Hayer (Renaissance, France), rapporteur on Own Resources, European Parliament negotiator and shadow rapporteur on MFF, added: "Any pro-European should remember this day as the MEPs have changed the course of the history: thanks to this unprecedented deal on own resources, the EU will be more autonomous and less intergovernmental. Thanks to the EP tenacity, that was mocked by some in a few EU capitals a few weeks ago, 16 billion of euros have been obtained to triple our health budget, move closer to our objective of 3% GDP for R&I and for our borders and the next Generation through Erasmus"
Moritz Körner (FDP, Germany), Renew Europe spokesperson for the MFF and the rule of law conditionality, concluded: "The new EU budget improves the EU's priorities for the next seven years. It is a huge success achieved by the parliament that there will be more funds for future-investments in the areas of research, digitization, education and climate protection. Nevertheless, an even stronger future-orientation would have been desirable. The European Parliament fought for the modernization of the EU, the German Council Presidency for the satisfaction of particular national interests."
