More ambitious and stable

Apart from the European Parliament, the Commission has found two other allies in the process that the EU is undertaking to define its multiannual financial framework 2014-2020. For in recent days the two consultative organs of the Community, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (COR), also expressed their support for the proposal made by the Executive on 29 June.Investments and growth. “One euro at EU level is worth more than one euro at the national level”; that’s why “the EU budget must be strengthened and have a leverage effect” in various sectors, including those of economic management and job creation. The EESC represents the voice of “European civil society”: the opinion formulated on the revision of the EU budget was jointly drafted by Henri Malosse, chairman of the Employers Group, and Gérard Dantin, of the Workers Group. The EESC opinion maintains that the budget of the 27 must be “intelligent, proactive and respond to the requirements of Europe today. Taxpayers’ money should be spent on clear priorities and visible projects that contain an added value at the EU level and respond to citizens’ needs and expectations”, says an EESC press release. The members of the EESC appreciate the fact that the Commission, in its proposal for the multiannual budget, puts the emphasis on investment and growth. A remark of political character should also be noted in the press release: “The EU budget should be more than just about numbers. The discussions around it need to address the EU’s key objectives and the way the 27 member states want to work together in the future. The EU’s current political projects – the statement continues – such as Europe 2020 strategy, and its objectives for growth, job creation, investments, and innovation certainly deserve a more ambitious and stable budget based on its own resources”. In fact the EESC supports the idea, sponsored by the Parliament and Commission, of introducing “a new system of own resources” to replenish the coffers of the EU.“Winning” over citizens. “The only way to make a success of an ambitious budget is to win the battle of public opinion”, underlines the EESC, which furnishes consultative opinions to other EU institutions. “Let us remember that there is a cost for ‘non-Europe’. The EESC, in partnership with the European Parliament, will carry out studies on the cost of non-Europe. This will probably show how things can be done better and more cheaply if countries work together and avoid duplications in national budgets, and quantify how much the delays in EU integration – agreeing a common patent or a single European sky, for example – are costing European citizens”. The EESC concludes its press release as follows: “It is a mistake to focus on the budget size. We would do better to think in terms of what it can do for Europe”.Yes to “own resources”. The regions and cities of the Union, represented by the Committee of the Regions, another consultative organ based in Brussels, also support the Commission’s “ambitious proposals” for the budget. The COR debated the Commission’s budget proposals during its plenary of 30 June, inviting the vice-chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, the German Jutta Haug, to engage with it in discussing the Commission’s Multiannual Financial Framework for post-1213. The members of the COR “had set a threshold of 1% of EU gross national income, below which the EU budget would lack credibility”. COR President, Mercedes Bresso, “thus welcomed the proposed figure of 1.05%” for the budget. The COR also expressed a positive opinion on the introduction of the EU’s “own resources”, and in particular on the proposed “introduction of a tax on financial transactions, and the establishment of a new EU-wide value added tax”.Territorial cohesion policy. “Indeed, most of the proposals made by the Committee in its opinions on the budget review and the future cohesion and agricultural policies” have taken on board the Commission’s proposals, said Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso, first vice-president of the COR, supporting the introduction of flexibility instruments, “not least to tackle crises in the agricultural sector”. “We also support – added Ms Bresso – the idea of strong linkage with the Europe 2020 strategy. For Europe to get out of the crisis, this strategy needs resources and wide ownership, extending beyond the narrow circle of national authorities. Local and regional authorities, socio-economic players and the residents of our regions, cities and villages must all have a stake in it”. But for the COR “cohesion policy remains the key tool for achieving this”.