The new proposal for the European Union's multiannual budget (2028 - 2034) will not disadvantage Romania, on the contrary, it offers considerable flexibility and freedom to organize its priorities, MEP Nicolae Stefanuta (Greens) stated on Thursday for AGERPRES, emphasizing the importance of Romania successfully absorbing all the European funds allocated to it.
''The discussion is not over. We have received assurances from the Commission, but they are not enough. I believe that what we need to do is to hurry up with the adoption. We are discussing the new multiannual financial framework (MFF), but we are extremely behind with the old MFF. Romania's package may be affected by the old MFF if we do not attract everything, because under the current conditions of economic and especially financial crisis, people may say 'why should we give you 30 billion euros when you were only able to cover 20 billion', said Stefanuta, who serves as Vice-President of the European Parliament and sits on the European Parliament's Budget Committee (BUDG).
Referring to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the MEP said that "we still have 25 billion out of 30 billion euros and if end up spending only 10 billion, that is one third, this would be a disaster.''
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs on Wednesday that the EU's future multiannual budget for 2028-2034 must be strong and sustainable, to give the European Union strength, flexibility and a greater ability to react.
The EU's executive chief said the European Commission's intention was to reform the bloc's multiannual budget - which will be the largest ever, worth almost 2 trillion - by prioritising spending on defence and competitiveness, adding new sources of revenue and changing funding criteria.
Von der Leyen stressed that agriculture and cohesion remain at the heart of this budget, which means that regions will be directly involved and will communicate directly with the Commission on the cohesion policy. The EU's multiannual budget proposal presented in July by the EU executive envisaged a merger of cohesion funds (intended to reduce disparities between the levels of development of the EU's regions) and agricultural subsidies, into centralised national plans totalling 865 billion.
On Monday, the European Commission's President made a series of legal changes to the initial proposal for the 2028 - 2034 EU budget, including ensuring adequate funding for farmers and safeguards for the involvement of regions. She thus responded to a letter from the leaders of the EPP, S&D, Renew and Green groups warning that "the European Parliament cannot accept this proposal as a basis for starting negotiations".
In the next two weeks, the European Parliament will appoint its rapporteurs for the sectoral legislative files of the 2028 - 2034 multiannual financial framework. The European Parliament has the possibility to approve or reject the final version of the multiannual budget, which is expected to be ready in early 2027. By then, member states should present their position on this subject.
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