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Last week the European Parliament voted a resolution on the decision made by heads of state and government on the EU budget in February (see Council conclusions). The resolution says that the Parliament “rejects this agreement in its current form, as it does not reflect the priorities and concerns expressed by Parliament”. However, it does not put in question the cuts agreed by member states; on the contrary it sets out three conditions for the Parliament to give its consent to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

The conditions are the following:

•     Flexibility to reallocate the unspent amounts between budget headings and between years
•     A compulsory mid-term review of the EU budget to assess where adjustments are required by the economic situation
•     A reform on own-resources that should reduce the share of GNI-based contributions to the EU budget to a maximum of 40%.

MEPs repeat their view that the MFF should ensure the successful implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy and stress the importance of improving education levels and promoting social inclusion, among other things.

The resolution also highlights the need for the Parliament and the Council to speed their negotiations on the EU multiannual programs, in parallel with the negotiations on the MFF, because they constitute a single package.

Five political groups supported the resolution (EPP, S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL). 506 votes were cast for, 161 against and 23 abstentions. It is interesting to see how a significant number of defections from the political group line were recorded in the EPP (mainly by MEPs from Poland, Romania, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) and in the S&D (by the British, Swedish and Danish delegations) – source: VoteWatch Europe.

Last week we sent a letter to the Parliament before the vote, calling to support the social dimension of the EU budget, in particular by keeping the minimum share for the ESF (25% of the cohesion policy’s budget).