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MEP Victor Negrescu of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) has been appointed the European Parliament's lead negotiator on the European Union budget for 2025.
According to a PSD press statement released on Thursday, the priorities of the European Parliament presented by Negrescu regard additional funds for improving the standard of living and developing agriculture.
"The lead negotiator of the European Parliament for next year's budget of the European Union, MEP Victor Negrescu, presented to the Committee for Budgets the guidelines of the European legislature as the relevant budget authority."
Negrescu is quoted as saying that his priority is that the funds allocated to the member states do not decrease, "more precisely to protect the resources already allocated to Romania" amidst the long-term European budget being renegotiated.
"In the current difficult context, the European Union needs a budget that focuses on people, that is fair and inclusive. It is necessary, more than ever, for the European Parliament to be united and to prioritise what really matters to citizens. Resources are limited, but we need to be pragmatic and creative at the same time to design a robust, flexible and resilient annual budget that is visible and tangible to EU citizens. My priority is that the funds allocated to member states do not decrease, specifically to protect the resources already allocated to Romania, given that the long-term European budget is being renegotiated. At the same time, we requested the addition of funds for agriculture and the countryside, additional actions for education and health, the development of programmes for seniors, workers from the diaspora and for young people and for the support of European entrepreneurs SMEs," Negrescu is quoted as telling the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets.
Negrescu asked his colleagues in the European Parliament to do everything possible so that European farmers no longer have to take to the streets for a decent living.
"At the same time, I want to make sure that the EU budget for 2025 will include the necessary resources to support Romania's full accession to the Schengen area and that the nearly EUR 40 billion unused from the 2014-2020 funding period will be redistributed to the member states, including Romania, that have a high absorption rate of the funds."
Negrescu is mandated to coordinate the negotiations of the European legislature on the European budget with the other European institutions, the EU Council and the European Commission.
