Countering the manoeuvres of the far right, Renew Europe builds a majority for a 2025 EU budget in favour of citizens

A provocation by the far right, unfortunately supported by a large part of the right, did not allow Renew Europe to vote today in favour of the parliamentary resolution accompanying the 2025 draft EU budget. It was a question of principle for our group attached to the rule of law, but also a response to a blatant lie from this part of the hemicycle: the EU does not interfere in the modalities of control at their borders by the Member States, for whom it is the responsibility, nor does the EU budget prevent the construction of physical equipment for security issues, in particular at the external borders affected by the hybrid threats of Russia and Belarus. Moreover, Renew Europe remains convinced that the best response to the migration crisis remains the rapid implementation of the Asylum and Migration Pact.

The duplicity of the extreme right was also evident on this occasion, as they voted against this budget. Renew Europe, on the contrary, strongly committed itself to obtaining the largest majority. However, the European Parliament, meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, adopted the financial position before the resolution, which will serve as a mandate during negotiations with the Council, and not the resolution.

This is one of the last budgetary exercises of the Multiannual Financial Framework and the room for manoeuvre is extremely limited. This is why the European Parliament has restored all the available appropriations that the EU Council had cut in order to deploy them on policies dear to Renew Europe because of their added value for European citizens, such as Erasmus+, EU4Health, Horizon Europe, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, military mobility or the reinforcement of staff for the Agencies that implement the Asylum and Immigration Pact, as well as for the European Public Prosecutor's Office.

Fabienne KELLER (Renaissance, France), Renew Europe's shadow rapporteur for the EU Budget 2025 in the Parliamentary Committee on Budgets (BUDG), said:

"I deplore the rejection of this resolution on the 2025 budget because of the EPP's alliance with the far right. We had built a good compromise with the EPP, the Socialists and the Greens that the EPP chose to reject in favour of aligning itself with the alternative far-right majority. This will not prevent our group from defending our priorities for European citizens during the budget conciliation with the Council."