Green light for the 2011 Budget

The European Parliament adopted the 2011 EU budget at its plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The adopted budget reflects most of MEPs' priorities, while respecting the total limits laid down by the Council.

The 2011 budget, as adopted by the full Parliament, includes more funding for the priorities set out by MEPs, including youth, innovation, the Middle East peace process and Palestine. Regarding the overall figures, MEPs accepted the levels proposed in the Commission's draft budget of 26 November: €141.8 billion in commitment appropriations and €126.5 billion in payments. Parliament has always attached more importance to the level of commitments, since they determine the expenditure.

Aside from the 2011 budget, Parliament had a number of political demands relating to the implementation of the budgetary provisions in the Lisbon Treaty. MEPs laid down seven such demands in a budget resolution adopted at the Strasbourg plenary session in October. The main ones concerned Parliament's involvement in the talks on the next long-term budget and on a new system of own resources. On the own resources issue, the Commission will present a formal proposal by the end of June 2011, so that it is discussed at the same time as the future financial perspective.

After almost two months of negotiations, EP negotiators have achieved an agreement with the Council's Presidency which is backed by the other Member States. It contains a commitment by the next four EU presidencies (the governments of Hungary, Poland, Denmark and Cyprus) on the involvement of the Parliament, which has given sufficient assurances to MEPs.

However, the issue of flexibility within the budget - to cater for unforeseen expenditure for emergencies or new EU tasks - and the financing of the ITER nuclear fusion research project will need to be resolved at a later stage since no agreement was reached between Parliament and Council.


Photo credits (c) European Parliament, 2010