The radical €2 trillion proposal to centralise the EU’s long-term budget for the seven years running from 2028 to 2034 was put on the table in July, and since then lobbyists and lawmakers have been pouring over the text trying to figure out where to levy influence on the final version.
Kata Tüttő, president of the European Committee of the Regions, calls the blueprint a ‘big ugly bill’ of “Trumpian transactional spirit,” arguing that the Commission is offering capitals “full nationalisation and flexibility” in exchange for “a centralised, territorially blind” defence and competitiveness fund.
The sweeping reforms, paired with massive cuts to regional and farmer subsidies, sparked outrage over an apparent power grab, putting all the cash in the hands of national governments and the Commission while sidelining regions and Parliament.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen conspicuously avoided touching these controversies in her State of the Union address on Wednesday.
“The Parliament’s role as a budgetary, legislative and democratic institution is not respected in the Commission’s proposal,” and Parliament having “no formal role” in implementing the national plans is unacceptable, centre-right MEP Siegfried Mureșan, a co-lead on the file, told Euractiv.
However, the Commission’s Directorate-General for Budget Stéphanie Riso promises everyone will be consulted, and criticism is just down to a misunderstanding. “The regions get the same role as today,” Riso said during a Bruegel event last week.
Riso has a large head start on anyone trying to understand the complex proposal. For now, critics may hesitate to challenge her, as it is “possible that she knows some details which other people haven’t noticed or grasped yet,” said Brugel’s budget expert Zsolt Darvas.
But any such knowledge monopoly “won’t last long,” he said.
Parliament’s budget authority is actually “increased very much compared to the situation today,” Riso said, because the flexible structure leaves more room for annual budgets negotiated with parliament and council will play a bigger role.
A lack of inclusion in shaping the budget cannot be offset by later involvement in the annual budgets, said Mureșan’s socialist counterpart Carla Tavares while slamming all parts of the Commission’s proposal on Tuesday.
According to Riso, the budget haters just don’t get it. “There is a lot of pedagogy that needs to be done here to explain, because I think there is still a lot of misunderstanding,” she said.
(jp)
