Today, the European Parliament has adopted its position for the final negotiations on the EU Budget 2018 by large majority, based on the report drafted by MEP Siegfried Mureșan (EPP), the European Parliament’s chief negotiator. In its position, the European Parliament voted for increases of budget appropriations for growth, job creation, especially for young people, as well as for security, and rejects the cuts proposed by the Council mainly on research, innovation and infrastructure.
“Our position is a realistic and pragmatic one, and we will not accept any cuts on important programmes for European citizens during the upcoming negotiations with the Council. From the beginning of the budgetary procedure we stated that investing in research, innovation, infrastructure, SMEs and education is key to the competitiveness of the EU economy. It is time to translate these statements into concrete actions. My objective is to ensure that the EU Budget delivers in the year 2018 growth, jobs and security for our citizens. Youth unemployment still remains too high in the EU, therefore, we proposed to increase the budget of the Youth Employment Initiative to €600 million in 2018 and to grant an additional €50 million to support young farmers 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. Moreover, we managed to put forward €12 million to finance, for the first time, the InterRail initiative which would grant one-month free Interrail tickets to 18-year-old Europeans to discover the EU”, MEP Siegfried Mureșan said.
“Security remains a top priority on our agenda because we cannot obtain sustainable growth if the EU citizens feel unsafe or insecure. 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 the EU’s external action, which includes the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood. We also decided to decrease by €50 million the support for political reforms in Turkey. EU funds cannot support regimes that do not commit to democratic values and breach fundamental rights”, MEP Siegfried Mureșan said.
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As of 31 October, the 21 days of conciliation talks with the Council will kick off, with the aim of reaching a deal between the two institutions in time for next year’s budget to be voted by the European Parliament at the end of November.
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For more details:
Andrei Jujan: +40 766 369 485;
Paul Stencoane: +40 769 611 020.
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