EU Budget: Call for investment in long-term growth.

The EU budget should be redesigned to promote long-term growth. Expenditures should be directed to develop the Single Market and support research and innovation, as both have a clear European dimension. Additionally, Member States should not treat the budget as a mere cost, but as an investment opportunity. These are just a few of the recommendations addressed in the CEPS Task Force Report: Investing where it matters: An EU Budget for Long-Term Growth drafted, among others, by Danuta Hübner MEP, Chairwoman of the Regional Development Committee of the European Parliament (EP), and Sidonia Jędrzejewska MEP, EPP Group Vice-Coordinator in the EP Budgets Committee.

"Funding from EU budget should focus on policies that, in a measurable way, contribute to the achievement of objectives and interests of the Union, strengthen cooperation and integration, ensure the application of European law, relate to important aspects of EU citizens' lives, engage and use effectively the potential of civil society, strengthen European institutional capacity, promote mobility and mutual learning, prevent growing development disparities, and work towards economic, social and territorial cohesion of the European Union", said Danuta Hübner MEP.

Today, in the European Parliament, the CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies) Task Force team presented its report entitled 'Investing where it matters: An EU budget for long-term growth'.

"The EU budget can have a substantial impact on the economy by directing funds to policies that can boost long-term economic growth such as education, competitiveness, innovation and regional cohesion. Europe desperately needs growth and new jobs, therefore, we must ensure that the next Multiannual Financial Framework is adequately financed and smartly constructed", Sidonia Jędrzejewska MEP.

Some of the key recommendations in the Report are:

 

• Members States need to focus on the long-term impact and European added value of the EU budget;
• Cuts cannot be undertaken in areas that might undermine Europe's capacity to compete globally and generate growth and jobs;
• The European Commission's proposal on the governance of the cohesion policy should be supported;
• If savings are necessary, they should be found in areas of low European added value;
• The task force does not support the 'blind' budgetary cuts on administration of the EU.

Members of the CEPS Task Force group met six times from May to December 2011 and engaged in debates over the nature of the next multi-annual financial framework. The participants included a broad range of stakeholders, MEPs and EU officials.