No additional funds despite fresh commitments and ongoing crises

The European Parliament has today approved the Midterm revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 (MFF). The revision is a poor deal for the parliament, says Greens/EFA member of the European Parliament’s Budget committee Indrek Tarand:

“The EU is facing multiple crises and has a range of new commitments to meet, most notably in respect to the Paris climate agreement. In spite of this, the European Parliament has agreed that the EU will have not a single euro more to spend on responding to these urgent needs. For all the talk of the end of the grand coalition, the European Socialists nonetheless teamed up with the Conservatives and the Council to try and sell the reallocation of funds from one source to another as an increase in the budget. Moving money around will fool no one. Further, by allowing elements of the European Parliament’s budgetary decision-making to be included in the MFF consent procedure, the European Parliament has sacrificed some of the powers it has in annual budget negotiations. That makes this a bad deal for the people of Europe, and a self-defeating one for this parliament.”