MEPs Approve EU’s 2014 Budget

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | November 20, 2013, Wednesday // 16:56
Bulgaria: MEPs Approve EU’s 2014 Budget File photo of the European Parliament in Strasbourg

The European Parliament approved the EU’s budget for 2014 on Wednesday.

The budget is the result of the deal struck with the Council in last week’s negotiations. For payments EUR 500 M were added to the 2014 budget, bringing the total compared to the initial Council position to EUR 135.5 B. Commitments were set at EUR 142.6 B, which is in line with the Commission’s budget proposal.

After negotiating through the night, Parliament and the Council agreed on Tuesday 12 November to remedy payments shortfalls in in the current fiscal year. This was a prerequisite for Parliament to approve the long-run budget (Multi-annual Financial Framework – MFF) for 2014-2020, because MEPs wanted to prevent the EU from starting the first year under the new MFF with a deficit.

The MFF was approved on Tuesday.

MEPs also ensured that the EU will compensate victims of catastrophic flooding and drought in 2013 and that Parliament’s priorities for 2014 in areas such as employment, research and innovation, border management and humanitarian aid are also taken on board.

MEP Anne Jensen (ALDE, DK), who steered the 2014 budget through Parliament, described the outcome as “an austerity budget” given that it is almost 6% down on this year.

“But I am glad we managed to secure more funds for growth policies for research, education and innovation and for humanitarian aid in the Middle East”, she added.

Also on Wednesday, the parliament continued voting on a laundry list of much-touted reforms and funding programmes that have been unblocked by the budget deals.

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Tags: multi-annual financial framework, budget, EU, European parliament, 2014

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