Today, the European Parliament’s Budgets Committee has approved the amendments to the EU Budget 2018 by large majority, as proposed by MEP Siegfried Mureșan (EPP), the European Parliament’s chief negotiator. Siegfried Mureșan’s compromise proposals target the increase of budget appropriations for job creation for young people as well as for security, while rejecting and restoring all Council cuts.
“My objective is to ensure that the EU Budget generates sustainable growth and jobs in the EU, especially for young people, while ensuring the security of its citizens. The €160 billion budget proposed by the European Commission is drafted around these three main priorities. Yet, the Council proposed cuts of €1.7 billion, mainly from research, innovation and infrastructure. Agreeing with the Council’s position means to agree to a budget that weakens the EU, instead of making it stronger. Under these circumstances, we would not be able to deliver what our citizens expect. This is why I proposed to reject and restore all Council cuts and to increase budget appropriations for job creation for young people as well as for security”, MEP Siegfried Mureșan added.
“Youth unemployment remains too high across Europe. We want to avoid endangering the future of an entire generation of young Europeans, therefore we proposed to increase the budget of the Youth Employment Initiative to €600 million in 2018. Furthermore, we proposed to grant an additional €50 million to support young farmers in order to reduce youth unemployment in rural areas. We also proposed an increase of €143 million for research, innovation and environmental programmes to ensure sustainable development. Security remains a top priority on our agenda. This is why we proposed an increase of €80 million for several migration and security budgetary lines and agencies with migration and asylum-related tasks. For more stability in the EU’s neighbourhood we proposed an increase of €299 million for EU’s external action, which includes the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood”, MEP Siegfried Mureșan said.
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For more details:
Andrei Jujan: +40 766 369 485;                                     

Paul Stencoane: +40 769 611 020.