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The Plenary sitting of the European Parliament adopted on Wednesday the resolution regarding the policy priorities of the European Parliament (EP) for the annual budget of the European Union (EU) for 2018. The resolution was approved by the MEPs with 445 votes "in favor," 134 votes "against," and 101 abstentions.
On Tuesday evening the resolution draft regarding the priorities of the European Legislature regarding the budget of the EU for the next year has been debated in the plenary of the EP, after the document was presented by the Chief negotiator of the EP for the annual budget of the EU for 2018 MEP Siegfried Muresan.
He pleaded within the debate that the policy priorities of the Union's budget for the next year aim at economic growth, creating jobs and ensuring the security on a European level. The Chief-negotiator of the EP on the EU budget for 2018 explained that in order to achieve the objectives connected to the economic growth and creating jobs the EU needs to invest more in "infrastructure, innovation and research." "Let's support more the SMEs, let's invest more in the high quality entrepreneurial activity. Projects such as Horizon 2020, COSME, Erasmus [...] must be comprised in the EU budget for the next year, because the EU economy must become more competitive, more credible in eyes of investors. This way we will ensure economic growth and jobs," Muresan stated.
When referring to the security area, the main report of the EP on the EU budget for 2018, he underscored that it needs to be approached on the Union's internal plan, as well as on its external plan. He said that on the internal security plan, the activity of European agencies in charge in the area must be strengthened, mentioning FRONTEX, EASO, EUROPOL, EUROJUST. Regarding internal security he also pointed out the necessity of existing some "pilot defence projects that were previously launched by the Commission."
"We would want to be, from this point of view, united in respect to the eastern vicinity of the EU, because there are countries which signed an association agreement, namely Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. They, currently are submitted to a more aggressive policy coming from the Russian Federation. We have to consolidate the independence of justice, the rule of law, to counteract the money laundering in these neighboring states. This is why we also focus on the south vicinity, the North of Africa, the states in the Middle East. And from here comes a migrant inflow towards us. The EU must support the refugees in their native countries," Muresan stated. He spoke in his presentation about other financial provisions of the EU budget for 2018, underlining the necessity of strengthening the Erasmus programme and the implementation of the "Interail" project.
