Leading MEPs support flexible budget, stress strong parliamentary oversight

Welcoming the Commission’s communication on the next long-term EU budget, the Budgets Committee Chair and the co-rapporteurs emphasise the importance of accountability in a joint statement.

The Chair of the Budgets Committee, Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, Belgium), and co-rapporteurs on the long-term EU budget, MEPs Siegfried Mureşan (EPP, Romania) and Carla Tavares (S&D, Portugal) issued the following joint statement on Wednesday following the publication of the Commission's communication on the next long-term EU budget:

“We welcome today's Communication by the Commission, setting out the path towards the post-2027 long-term budget. We need a budget capable of addressing the challenges the Union is facing – we have to properly finance the Union’s traditional policies, while also ensuring adequate funding for our new priorities. We also need to be equipped to repay our joint debt in a sustainable way. The Union cannot do more with less.

We must focus our spending on areas where common investment leads to European added value and makes a difference to people’s lives. We will also ensure that all EU spending is aligned with our strategic priorities: Europe must become safer and more competitive, while supporting the just digital and green transitions, leaving no one behind. The next long-term budget must cut red tape for beneficiaries, become more flexible and responsive to crises and shocks, and remain firmly anchored in the rule of law and the Union’s values. The budget must also be sufficiently resourced with stronger, modernised revenues, notably through new genuine own resources, to ensure sufficient and sustainable financing for our common priorities.

At the same time, the simpler and more flexible the EU budget, the greater the need for robust parliamentary accountability – this is a democratic imperative that must be in place from day one.

Regardless of how the next long-term budget is structured and resourced, Parliament must fully exercise its role as legislator, budgetary, and discharge authority, in line with the Treaties. We will remain highly invested to ensure that Parliament remains a key decision-maker in the design and implementation of the next long-term budget and that the necessary structures and tools are in place to hold the executive firmly to account. At the same time, we must involve local and regional authorities in this process, as they understand best the real needs of people on the ground.

We want a budget of and for the citizens of Europe with strong parliamentary accountability, not only a budget of the Commission and the Council. We expect immediate cooperation between the Parliament, the Commission, and the Council.

The next step is the adoption of the European Parliament’s own-initiative report on the next long-term EU budget in May. Then, once the Commission presents its long-term budget proposal in July 2025, the European Parliament and the Council must begin negotiations without delay."

For further information, please contact:

Office of Johan Van Overtveldt: +32 2 28 45343, johan.vanovertveldt@europarl.europa.eu

Office of Siegfried Mureșan: +32 2 28 45154, siegfried.muresan@europarl.europa.eu

Office of Carla Tavares: +32 2 28 45222, carla.tavares@europarl.europa.eu