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EU budget shake-up: Brussels eyes more flexibility, new taxes, and major reforms
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The European Union budget has to be modernised because the world is changing rapidly and the new challenges require “smarter responses”, the European commissioner responsible for budget, anti-fraud and public administration said in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
Addressing a plenary debate in the European Parliament on the EU’s multiannual financial framework (MFF), Piotr Serafin said it was unsustainable for 90 percent of budgetary resources to be locked in from the outset. “We must create space for the unforeseen to respond quickly to the new priorities and to crises,” he said. “But in the search for flexibility, we also must preserve some predictability.”
The EU’s regions, researchers and companies needed stability, the commissioner said. Investors, he added, needed to know where to orient their funds in line with the EU’s priorities. Serafin said the MFF did not just have to be smarter but also simpler. Defence and security have become a key topic in recent months, he said, adding that it would be “naive” to think that the EU budget alone could finance this area.
As regards the Common Agricultural Policy, Serafin said that though it was undergoing reform and simplification, it also had to provide farmers with the necessary predictability and means. He said the EU also had to address its competitiveness woes, for which the European Commission will propose the creation of the European Competitiveness Fund that would support the entire innovation cycle.
Meanwhile, Serafin said the debate on the use of member states’ resources could not be avoided because financial needs were higher and national budgets were under growing pressure. Also, from 2028 onward, around 25 billion euros in the EU budget will be committed to repaying loans from the next generation EU instruments, he added.
“[M]ember states are reluctant to increase national contributions, therefore we must identify a balanced mix of new revenues that neither overburden national budgets nor create extensive financial obligations, and which are in sync with our policies and objectives,” the commissioner said.