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DRAFT REPORT (2023/2220(BUI))

On general guidelines for the preparation of the 2025 budget, Section III – Commission

BUDG-PR-758108

Committee on Budgets · Rapporteur: Victor Negrescu

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This is the rapporteur's draft report on Parliament's general guidelines for the 2025 budget, Section III – Commission. It calls for a reliable, people-centred EU budget that protects flagship programmes and citizens despite tight MFF margins. It asks for new own resources, a permanent special instrument above the MFF ceilings, and a separate EURI instrument for recovery borrowing costs. It wants more social spending, support for Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps, health, education, skills and the European Pillar of Social Rights. It backs the digital and green transitions, the common agricultural policy, gender equality, strategic autonomy and support for Ukraine, enlargement countries, neighbourhood and humanitarian aid. It urges faster implementation of cohesion and recovery funds to avoid a payment crisis and reduce the reste à liquider.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes that Parliament adopt general guidelines for the 2025 budget that protect a people-centred EU budget, introduce new own resources and a permanent special instrument above the MFF ceilings, strengthen social, digital, green and external priorities, and boost implementation of cohesion and recovery funds.

Key points

  1. Parliament insists on a reliable, robust and people-centred EU budget for 2025, despite institutional change, financial pressure and societal challenges.
  2. It regrets that the Council did not agree on the MFF revision before the end of 2023, leaving uncertainty and very tight margins for 2025.
  3. It says EURI borrowing costs are an EU obligation and should sit in a special instrument above the MFF ceilings, without harming programmed spending or non-thematic special instruments.
  4. It notes modest growth and above-target inflation, which reduce the budget's purchasing power, and a very low call rate for the GNI-based own resource.
  5. It deplores slow Council progress on own resources reform and backs new genuine revenue sources to cover NextGenerationEU borrowing costs.
  6. It wants an additional permanent special instrument above the MFF ceilings so the budget can react quickly to crises.
  7. It calls for the social dimension to become a cross-cutting criterion, with inclusiveness and accessibility in funding, and for effective, timely spending of RRF and cohesion funds.
  8. It wants the budget to support jobs, competitiveness, SMEs, young people, infrastructure, cohesion, vulnerable and rural communities, agriculture, research and innovation.
  9. It calls for maximum funding for Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps, with mobility grants covering living costs and better access for disadvantaged people.
  10. It calls for adequate resources for social security coordination, the Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information, job retraining, civil protection, health, and action on medicine prices and cardiovascular disease.
  11. It calls for action on skills, education, democracy and rights funding, journalistic freedom, culture, digital transition, the European Green Deal, agriculture and fisheries, gender equality and strategic autonomy.
  12. It backs a solidarity-based migration and asylum policy, European security and defence, support for Ukraine, enlargement countries, neighbourhood, humanitarian aid, and faster implementation of cohesion and recovery funds.

Who is affected

  • EU citizens, who should benefit from a people-centred budget, social spending and equal access to services.
  • Member states, which are urged to speed up implementation of cohesion and recovery funds and to allocate resources for social security coordination.
  • Farmers, especially young farmers, who should receive additional resources to cope with inflation, fuel costs and new production standards.
  • Ukraine, Western Balkan countries, Moldova and Georgia, which should receive support for reconstruction, accession reforms and resilience.
  • EU agencies and decentralised bodies, which must be properly staffed and adequately resourced.

Figures and deadlines

  • 1.3 % in 2024 and 1.7 % in 2025: forecast European economic growth.
  • 2 %: inflation rate used as an automatic deflator for the MFF.
  • 3.5 % in 2024 and 2.4 % in 2025: expected inflation.
  • 0.46 % in the draft budget 2024: call rate for the GNI-based own resource.
  • March 2024: date by which Romania and Bulgaria will join the Schengen travel zone.
  • 2026 and 2027: years in which under-implementation could cause a payment crisis under the MFF payment ceiling.

Legal basis: Article 314 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.