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BackThe fight against high unemployment and poverty in the European Union, the emphasis on the particularly important role of education, investments in research and in EU infrastructure projects and the demand to retain the 2 pillar system for the Common Agricultural Policy are some of the central requirement of the European Parliament on the future EU budgets from 2014. Following a year of discussions, this week, a special committee on the European Financial Framework from 2014 voted on a respective report, which now only needs to be confirmed in the plenum of the European Parliament.
However, the draft report on the EU Financial Framework from 2014, which had been prepared by the MEP in charge, Salvador Garriga Polledo of the European People’s Party had looked little encouraging: the currently very significant problem of high unemployment in the EU was not mentioned; a separate chapter on social and employment policy was completely missing. Instead, the paper of the MEP contained statements on the competitiveness of the EU, which had been the same for years.
This obviously raised the alarm with labour representatives, who drew the MEPs’ attention both to the problem of extremely high unemployment at EU level, but also to the targets of the EU2020 Strategy, which were initiated by the Commission. These targets aim at reducing poverty and unemployment and at introducing measures in the education sector, among others to reduce the number of early school leaves.
However, after the vote in the committee, the report looks significantly better: a separate chapter is now dealing with the fight against unemployment, working conditions and the great importance of a functioning labour market is now being mentioned. There is also a clear commitment to the EU2020 targets. In particular emphasised here is the European Social Funds, which is to play a major role to achieve these targets.
However, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, on which currently almost half the EU budget is spent, remains a fly in the ointment. Unfortunately there is little to read about commitments to use the resources in this sector more efficiently. The model of Public Private Partnerships to finance infrastructure projects, which was little successful in the past, has been revived in the document. However, the text also says that mistakes from the past should not be repeated.
In respect of the revenue side of the EU budget, the European Parliament expects the Commission to come up with suppositions on new equity capital in particular with regard to a feasibility study to introduce an EU Financial Transaction Tax. Concerning the term of the multi-annual EU Financial Framework, the EU Parliament is in favour of a 7-year programme.
The intention is to adopt the text in form of a resolution in the plenum of the European Parliament before the summer break. A proposal of the Commission, which for the first time will contain figures on the EU Financial Framework from 2014, is expected for 29 June.
This obviously raised the alarm with labour representatives, who drew the MEPs’ attention both to the problem of extremely high unemployment at EU level, but also to the targets of the EU2020 Strategy, which were initiated by the Commission. These targets aim at reducing poverty and unemployment and at introducing measures in the education sector, among others to reduce the number of early school leaves.
However, after the vote in the committee, the report looks significantly better: a separate chapter is now dealing with the fight against unemployment, working conditions and the great importance of a functioning labour market is now being mentioned. There is also a clear commitment to the EU2020 targets. In particular emphasised here is the European Social Funds, which is to play a major role to achieve these targets.
However, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, on which currently almost half the EU budget is spent, remains a fly in the ointment. Unfortunately there is little to read about commitments to use the resources in this sector more efficiently. The model of Public Private Partnerships to finance infrastructure projects, which was little successful in the past, has been revived in the document. However, the text also says that mistakes from the past should not be repeated.
In respect of the revenue side of the EU budget, the European Parliament expects the Commission to come up with suppositions on new equity capital in particular with regard to a feasibility study to introduce an EU Financial Transaction Tax. Concerning the term of the multi-annual EU Financial Framework, the EU Parliament is in favour of a 7-year programme.
The intention is to adopt the text in form of a resolution in the plenum of the European Parliament before the summer break. A proposal of the Commission, which for the first time will contain figures on the EU Financial Framework from 2014, is expected for 29 June.