The agreement must first address the fundamental injustices of the MFF proposal

EU Member States’ heads of state and government will meet on the 20th February aiming to reach an agreement on the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) post 2020. In connection with next week’s EU summit, MEPs discussed the European Parliament’s position on EU funds. In his plenary speech, Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch highlighted that the injustices in the EU budget need to be eliminated before a fair agreement can be reached.

The head of the Fidesz delegation pointed out that the Finnish government had seriously failed to prepare the next financial framework. Due to the poor performance of the Finnish Presidency, Member States are now very far from an agreement, thus the  task is huge for the Croatian Presidency and Charles Michel, President of the European Council.

MEP Deutsch emphasized that due to the regrettable work of the Finnish Presidency, an unfair and unjust budget proposal is on the Council’s table. It is unacceptable for Hungary to transfer money from poorer Member States to richer ones. Heads of state and government must therefore put an end to this injustice in the first place.

Tamás Deutsch emphasized that it is important to talk about the numbers as well. “There is a difference of 350 billion euros between the overall size of the most  and least ambitious budget proposals. This is a lot of money at first, but in reality it means that every EU citizen would have to pay 9 euros a month into the budget. A common European future is worth that money”, concluded the EPP Group MEP.

Background:The European Parliament has a right of consent in the adoption procedure of the MFF, therefore following the unanimity in the Council,  EP consent is required, thus the it has the power of  “veto” over the agreement of the heads’ of states and governments.

The European Parliament adopted its position last November in the hope of concluding the negotiations quickly, proposing to increase the financing virtually all of the programs. It intends to finance traditional policies, regional development and the Common Agricultural Policy at current levels and proposes to increase the MFF to 1.3% of EU GNI.