Opinion on the General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025 - all sections

05.09.2024

Mr Johan Van Overtveldt

Chair

Committee on Budgets

BRUSSELS

Subject: Opinion on the General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025 - all sections 2024/0176(BUD)

Dear Chair,

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection has been asked to submit an opinion to your committee. At its meeting of 24 January 2024, the committee decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter. It considered the matter at its meeting of 5 September 2024 and adopted the opinion at that meeting.

Yours sincerely,

Anna Cavazzini

IMCO Chair

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection calls on the Committee on Budget, as the committee responsible, to take into account the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

1. Understands the need for restructuring the MFF in order to match the modified budgetary needs due to the post-pandemic situation, high inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but underlines at the same time the needs to strengthen EU competitiveness by deepening and making the Single Market more resilient, therefore adequate financing of the Single Market programmes is necessary, as it plays a key role in the economic recovery process and achieving the EU’s consumer protection, digital and sustainability objectives;

2. Expresses hope that the newly elected college of Commissioners will support the further development of the Single Market in sectors like services, electronic communications and digital market economy; calls for concrete initiatives and actions to boost cross-border trade in services, dismantle unjustified barriers to their free movement, reduce unjustified administrative burdens for companies, and ensure adequate implementation, compliance and enforcement of existing legislation;

3. Sees big potential in the current reform of the Union Customs Code and establishing EU Customs Authority; underlines that effective simplification of customs procedures and proper enforcement of customs systems are essential for combating fraud, counterfeiting and transnational crime, driving competition, ensuring compliance with EU law and protecting consumers; reiterates the importance of an adequate and effective level of commitment appropriations to allow the modernisation of the customs union and development of electronic and more automated customs systems in the interest of greater efficiency for EU companies and streamlined protection of consumers;

4. Reiterates its call for sufficient funding and staffing necessary to ensure that the enforcement of Digital Markets Act (DMA) is efficient and adequate, guaranteeing that market investigations on gatekeepers’ compliance are done in time to maintain a fair and open digital markets for businesses and consumers;

5. Notes the proposal to allocate appropriations for the Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2025, sourced from supervisory fees charged to Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines, ensuring robust EU-wide implementation and enforcement;

6. Highlights the importance of allocating an adequate budget for the implementation of the EU AI Act in 2025; stresses that the level of funding budgeted in 2025 should support the timely establishment of the European Artificial Intelligence Office, the AI Board, the AI Advisory Panel, and the AI Scientific Panel, including the recruitment of around 50 FTEs;

7. Welcomes the increased allocation of resources for ensuring a high level of consumer protection and product safety and in market surveillance, recalls that allocating adequate resources to tackle the increasing number of illegal and non-compliant products on the market is crucial in order to effectively protect consumers and avoid the distortion of competition;

8. Believes that additional efforts are needed to support Member States in the digitalisation of the public sector, especially for procedures that affect businesses and consumers, enabling them to conduct administrative procedures online;

9. Underlines the need to allocate resources to ensure the access to internet and digitisation for all EU citizens, especially the elderly and those living in rural areas; although much progress has been made, it is necessary to end the digital gap and ensure equality of conditions for all citizens;

10. Recalls that the Single Market Programme aims at supporting actions to support the wider uptake of strategic public procurement, including improved access for SMEs and freelancers to public procurement; notes that the adoption of best practices in public procurement for projects funded by the EU could help to avoid frequent errors and ensure proper implementation of investments;

11. Highlights the need for EU-funding to help ensuring greater compliance of economic operators with rules set at EU-level when placing a product or a service on the market; calls in this regard for increased budget to finance development of EU capacities, such as Union testing facilities as well as action to support greater cooperation and synergy between EU-level and national market surveillance authorities to ensure that products sold both online and offline are safe, and that consumer trust is ensured, in particular for cross-border purchases and for those categories of products at risk; asks the Commission to ensure sufficient funding in that respect.

ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The Chair declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.