A fair EU budget must be established

Press Release by Fidesz-KDNP Delegation to the European Parliament

On behalf of the Fidesz-KDNP delegation, MEP Tamás Deutsch held a speech at yesterday’s EP plenary debate on the preparation of the next European Council meeting. The Hungarian Head of Delegation drew attention to the importance of establishing a fair multiannual financial framework (MFF) that facilitates reaching set goals, and he pointed out the five important pillars the Council’s draft needs to be based on.

The system of refunds should be abolished because it unjustifiably obscures the extent to which each Member State actually contributes to the EU budget. The proposal should recognize that a significant part of the cohesion funds allocated to the regions of the Central and Eastern European Member States will be returned to Western countries. It is also unacceptable to reduce cohesion funds and, in particular, it is unjust for a budget to deprive poorer countries of more cohesion funds than it does richer countries. Moreover, the next seven-year budget must be flexible.

MEP Deutsch finally emphasized that the ambitions set for the European Union climate goals in the current form of the framework budget proposal are merely empty words. He stressed that in order to realize the 2050 climate targets, a budget with a fair and concrete action plan has to be adopted for the next seven years. It is an impossible situation, that the Council asked the Commission only one month ago to draw up a financial program for the EU resources required to implement such a concrete plan to achieve the 2050 goals.