This autumn, the European Commission officially approved a set of documents as part of the political agreement between the Council and the European Parliament on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-2020.
Negotiations on MFF 2014-2020 were successfully finalized this summer (in June) at the highest political level between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. The agreement includes a draft regulation on MFF sent by the Council to the Parliament (with agreement demand), a draft inter-institutional agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary matters, the elaboration of four joint declarations of the three institutions and two unilateral declarations of EC. In July, the EP approved the EU’s multiannual draft budget, accepting the negotiated budget package on the long term and obtaining the key priorities in its negotiation mandate.
Following negotiations, in September 2013, the Commission approved a set of documents regarding the MFF 2014-2020, a financial framework which transposes the political priorities of the Union in financial terms for a period of at least 5 years and sets the maximum annual amounts for large cost categories.
The documents approved by the Commission include the inter-institutional project to be signed in parallel with the adoption of the MFF regulation, as well as the six declarations – on own resources; best use of public spending; gender issues related to the annual budget; amounts for the Youth Employment, Horizon 2020, Erasmus and COSME; national management declarations and on the review of the MFF. The package adopted (in September) does not include the MFF draft regulation as final adoption depends on the Council and the EP.
“We have to consolidate our activities in order to implement the multiannual financial framework which constitutes the European budget. The EU budget is the most concrete leverage we have to stimulate investments. We have to make sure that programmes can now start on 1 January 2014 and that the results of these projects will be visible; also, we have to make sure that we use the available innovative financing methods, from instruments that have already begun to be implemented up to the EIB funds and bonds for financing projects”, declared Jose Manuel Barroso, EC President.
The entire package of documents is subject to the approval of the European Parliament and then the Council will adopt the MFF Regulations and the three institutions will sign the inter-institutional agreement.
After the EU budget is confirmed by the EP and the member states, EUR 325 Billion will be invested through the Cohesion Policy in the European regions and cities in order to reach the objectives set by the EU on economic growth, creating jobs, fighting against climate change and reducing energy efficiency. In turn, this will determine the allocation of national and regional resources worth EUR 100 Billion, total investments being estimated at over EUR 400 Billion.
As regards the infrastructure, the financing will depend on the finalization of negotiations for the multiannual financial framework. In 2014-2020, transport infrastructure financing will triple, EUR 26 Billion will be the amount dedicated to major projects. The prioritization of the east-west connections will require around half of EC’s financing or EUR 11.3 Billion of the Connecting Europe Facility allocated to the cohesion policy.
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