Debate: General budget of the European Union for the financial year  - all sections
Date: TUESDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2023
Speaker: Johannes Hahn
Language: EN

I would like to thank the rapporteurs, Mr Mureșan and Mr Ušakovs, for reaching, finally, a compromise on almost 1 200 budgetary amendments amongst political groups and committees presenting a united Parliament position. Firstly, I appreciate the amendments proposed by the Parliament to reinstate the expenditure at the level proposed by the Commission in the draft budget, as I emphasised in September. To the honourable Members, I regret the Council’s cuts, which are not accompanied by adequate justifications and which do not respect the Council’s own priorities. I therefore share the rapporteurs’ assessment in this regard and agree that the draft budget is a bare minimum for the next year. Secondly, Parliament proposes reinforcements in several programmes for 2024 to include a mid-term revision of the MFF. While I appreciate Parliament’s support for the mid-term revision, we will need to integrate the mid-term revision elements at the right moment in time, hopefully during the Conciliation Committee already. We depend on the progress of the Council, where the leaders – I very much hope – will provide clear guidance next week at the European Council. It is important to reach an agreement on the revised MFF soon in order to include it in the budget for 2024. Otherwise, we would have a budget with limited means for the large challenges the Union faces, like the war in Ukraine and all the other crises in the European neighbourhood. Since more than one week ago, we have been confronted with a new situation in the Middle East, and I am sure that this will also have a budgetary impact very soon. This is only one of the many examples where we could not have foreseen these events when we not only adopted the MFF in 2020, but even when we drafted the mid-term review in June this year. Therefore, this cannot be done within the existing ceilings and with the notable limited remaining availability. Therefore, I hope the progress of the mid-term review negotiations will allow the 2024 budget to be based on a revised MFF. If we take one step back in our annual budget negotiations, both the Parliament and the Council will have set the framework of their respective mandates. As usual, at this point, the positions diverge, although considerably less than in previous years. Inevitably, a clear prioritisation of tabled amendments, as well as concessions on both sides, will be necessary so that we can focus our discussions on a limited number of programmes where meaningful adjustments can be made. The amending letter, which the Commission adopted on 9 October, addresses some elements included both in the Council position and in Parliament’s amendments. Therefore, I would like to ask Parliament and the Council to consider this amending letter as a starting point in the negotiating process. I am confident that the negotiations will continue in the positive spirit we had until now, and that Parliament and the Council will manage to reconcile their positions. State secondary, rapporteurs, I can reassure you that we will do everything to play the honest broker in order to get an agreement in deed, not only on the basis of what we presented in June, but also taking into account a positive forthcoming outcome of the mid-term review.