"Support for an ambitious EU budget after 2020 is growing and the #CohesionAlliance scores high" said Isabelle Boudineau, the Chair of the CoR's Budget Working Group and Vice-President of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region in charge of European Affairs (PES/France). The Plenary of the European Parliament (EP) approved today two reports on the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) post 2020 and on the EU's own resource system. The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) had already put forward its demands on the new financing of the EU budget in October 2017 and January 2018.
The EP supported in its votes the CoR's call for an increase of the next MFF of up to 1.3% of EU gross national income (GNI). "For regions and cities all over Europe, this is a key demand. A lower budget risks cutting off most EU regions from the Cohesion Policy", commented Isabelle Boudineau. She also pointed to the inestimable cost of "non-cohesion".
Already in October 2017, the CoR had approved Isabelle Boudineau's opinion on the Reform of EU own resources within the next MFF post-2020, calling for an end of all rebates mechanisms and new own resources to finance new priorities. "A tax on multinational companies, a financial transaction tax, a carbon tax and why not a tax on plastics – the list of potential new sources of revenue is long. And these revenues do not necessarily have to impact public budgets while increasing transparency", underlined Isabelle Boudineau. "Once Member States accept that the rebate system is over and that real own resources are the future, the horse-trading on the EU budget can stop", concluded Boudineau.
