AGERPRES special correspondent Florin Stefan, reports: Romanian MEP Siegfried Muresan (PNL) presented on Thursday, in the European Parliament's Budgets Committee, his interim report on the European Commission's budget proposal for the period 2028-2034, which calls for an increase in the EU's multiannual budget by around ten percentage points, up to 1.27% of the gross national income of the member states.
The presentation of the report prepared by Siegfried Muresan, from the EPP group in the EP, and his Portuguese co-rapporteur Carla Tavares, from the S&D group, basically represents the beginning of a legislative process that should end first at the earliest next spring, with the adoption of an EP position on the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and then, following negotiations with the EU Council, with the adoption of the future MFF. This time, unlike the previous negotiations on the 7-year EU budgets, the two co-legislators aim to conclude the negotiations by the end of 2026, so that in 2027 local, regional and national authorities can prepare for the absorption of EU funds from January 1, 2028.
Asked what the three main changes proposed by the report for which he is co-rapporteur on the EC draft are, Siegfried Muresan told AGERPRES on Thursday that the first in order of importance is "the 10% increase in the budget, which means approximately 200 billion euros for all EU member states".
"The European Commission has proposed a draft budget of 1.15% of the gross national income of the member states, compared to 1.14% in the last seven years. Basically, the European Commission has proposed to keep the budget at the same level. We, the European Parliament, consider that the budget as a whole, as proposed by the European Commission, is insufficient to adequately finance the old priorities and to ambitiously finance the new priorities and we therefore propose an increase in the budget by 10%, from 1.15% of the gross national income of the member states, to 1.27%," said Muresan.
Secondly, Siegfried Muresan specified, the report calls for a strong Common Agricultural Policy and a Cohesion Policy, distinct in the future, and rejects the idea of merging the two policies into a national fund for each member state.
He explained that, thirdly, it is desired that the new MFF should be "flexible".
He assured that the EU legislature wants, like the Council, that the negotiations on the future MFF be concluded by the end of 2026.
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