Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO) and Nils UŠAKOVS (S&D, LV), co-Rapporteurs, hold a press conference on the outcome of the vote on Parliament's position on the 2024 EU budget. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Strasbourg

press conference

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

MUREŞAN, Siegfried (EPP, RO)

UŠAKOVS, Nils (S&D, LV)

president's agenda

EU budget 2024 (T)

Press conference by Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO) and Nils UŠAKOVS (S&D, LV), co-rapporteurs on Outcome of the vote on Parliament's position on the 2024 EU budget

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Thank you very much, gentlemen. Good afternoon to all of you. Two weeks ago, this Parliament gave a clear message that the long-term EU budget, the MFF, must be urgently revised. This, in order for our Union to have the resources that it needs to deliver on our priorities and meet our citizens expectations over the coming years.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Today, the European Parliament has taken the next step by adopting its position on the 2024 budget with a large majority. The vote is based on our MFF interim report adopted at our last plenary, as well as on our positions on the Ukraine Facility and the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform, the step that were adopted also by a large majority yesterday.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, I will start by thanking the co-rapporteurs, Siegfried Mureşan and Nils U&scaron;akovs, for their excellent work on the 2024 budget. Position is clear. We need a budget that is fit for purpose, that is predictable and that is transparent. And we need it now. Our citizens expect us to deliver. Our partners expect us to deliver. And frankly, we cannot afford if we have learned anything, to postpone decisions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Now we, as the Parliament, the budgetary authority, set our priorities where we believe Europe can be stronger, where there is a clear added value for the European Union, and that is on research, such as Horizon Europe, on the students, Erasmus Plus Climate Action, transport, infrastructure, the EU Neighbourhood, and humanitarian aid. So we are ready. We are ready to engage to get the MFF revision agreed and ready to negotiate on an EU budget 2024, build on that revision.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, As I said here two weeks ago exactly, there are two compelling reasons for us to act now. First, because our funds are finite: the pandemic, Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine and natural disasters, rising inflation, increased demand for humanitarian aid and a cost of living crisis have put a heavy burden on our budget. And at the same time, rising interest rates have led to increased Next Generation EU borrowing and the costs associated with that. So the combined effect of all of this is that the EU budget is stretched to its limit. We must acknowledge this, and we have a duty to react.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Secondly, because the world has changed beyond recognition in the last years, as a result of our priorities. All Member States agree on this. In fact, the European Council itself has described it as tectonic shifts in European history. So in the end, this comes down to taking responsibility. Keeping promises and delivering for the people that we represent. These are the people who have asked us to deliver on these policies. It is about our credibility, and we are absolutely ready to play our part.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, Thank for you joining very much the President and ourselves into this conference. The plenary of the European Parliament has adopted today by a very large majority the position of the European Parliament on the budget of the European Union for next year. We have adopted this with 424 votes in favour, just 101 votes against and 102 abstentions. I would like to start by thanking all political groups for their constructive approach and to ensure everyone that the European Parliament goes with a strong and united approach into the upcoming and final negotiations with the Council and the European Commission.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, The budget that we have adopted as a Parliament's position today is a budget that is suitable and right for the challenges that we are facing. Firstly, I would like to say that we reject any cuts to the budget attempted by the Member States, by the Council of the European Union. The Commission has put forward a draft budget, an initial project which is the bare minimum of what we need to provide funding to the people of Europe, to enterprises, to farmers, to researchers, to students, to the regions, which want to develop, invest, modernise or that are facing a challenge. This is why we are rejecting any attempts to cut the budget.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, Secondly, we are starting from the draft budget presented by the Commission and are proposing moderate increases to some categories of the budget, where we see demand is high, people need support and money would be well invested. It would make Europe stronger. The Parliament demands budgetary increases to research and innovation. COVID vaccines were invented with EU support from the research funds. This is money well spent for research, including for medical purposes.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, We want our transport infrastructure to be improved, including towards Ukraine, to be able to help Ukraine quicker and faster through our transport routes. We want more Erasmus scholarships for the young people of Europe. This makes the European Union more visible, and this would allow young people of Europe to enjoy the benefits of the European Union. We also want to strengthen the newly created European Health Programme, and we also want to provide more funding to young farmers to make agriculture attractive for young farmers.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, We want to make sure that money from the European Union is well spent. This is why we are supporting and strengthening the newly created European Public Prosecutor's Office. This is a good investment for the European Union because they are able to tackle, investigate any irregularities with EU funds.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, We also believe, and the President has already underlined it, that people need to be protected in the European Union and in our immediate borders. This is why the European Commission has proposed a revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework, because in 2020 we agreed the Multiannual Financial Framework for seven years. But since then we faced many security challenges, war in Ukraine, the terrorist attack by Hamas upon Israel right now.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, And it is clear that unexpected things happened, unexpected developments occurred. We need to revise the multiannual budget to be able to protect our citizens better. This is why for the budget of the European Union for next year, we are proposing in line with the Multiannual Financial Framework Revision put forward by the Commission to allocate more money to security, defence, military mobility, border protection, and also managing inflows of refugees.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, The terrorist attack by Hamas upon Israel shows us again that we will have to do more to protect our citizens. We will have to do it faster and we will have to do it for a longer period of time. The Parliament now has a position on the budget, on the Multiannual Financial Framework. We are calling on the Council to finally establish their position on the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework to come to the table to negotiate the revision of the multiannual budget and also the budget of the Union for the next year.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, We are ready to negotiate and we believe that the position adopted by the Parliament today stays true to the commitments, which the institutions of the European Union have been making to the people of Europe. Thank you very much.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Nils UŠAKOVS (S&D, LV), co-rapporteur, 94% of European Union budget is spent on programmes and investment. 6% is spent on administration, and it's usually a complicated part. Right now, when we discuss what's going on with the European administration and financing, I should share that we are facing pressure on Heading 7. This pressure is obviously connected to the financial situation, which results from COVID crisis, which results from war in Ukraine.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Nils U&Scaron;AKOVS (S&amp;D, LV), co-rapporteur, And we share these concerns, Committee of Budget and European Parliament, when we dealt with the estimates of institutions, when we dealt with the estimates of the European Parliament itself. We were very reasonable, and I would say that we were pretty much frugal. EP estimates, when we start to discuss figures, I would say were especially modest because we didn't request any new posts. Everything connected to non-salary and non-contractual expenses were strictly below two percentage threshold.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Nils UŠAKOVS (S&D, LV), co-rapporteur, And well, we must keep in mind that next year we've got European Parliament election. We will have 15 more members of the European Parliament next year, July. We didn't request additional financing for the new Members of the Parliament that will arrive next year, for example. And I would like to thank the Commission because, on one hand, they helped us a lot, trying to get figures for other institutions, boost down, and trying to save Heading 7. But I believe they slightly budgetary overreacted.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Nils UŠAKOVS (S&D, LV), co-rapporteur, We are restoring right now in what we voted today at the plenary. Any lines connected to electricity, to utility, to contractual obligations. Because if you've got an administration, you cannot provide financing for ten months. You have to provide for the full year if you expect to see your work as a full capacity and provide results for the Europeans.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Nils UŠAKOVS (S&D, LV), co-rapporteur, And we also have to keep in mind that certain institutions, they face new additional tasks imposed by the Council, by the Commission, by the European Parliament. We talk about EDPs and the regulation with respect to artificial intelligence. We talk about the European External Action Service and the war in Ukraine. We face another war right now in Israel and Gaza. So that means we were restoring for these two institutions relatively more than for others.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Nils UŠAKOVS (S&D, LV), co-rapporteur, In absolute figures, the champion right now with respect to restoration is the External Action Service. We restored €54 million, and, in relative figures, it's a European Data Protection Service, 13%. So we are using approach that it's sharing the financial burden, that is based on solidarity. When we talk about our attempts to save Heading 7. And the European institutions and the European Administration, they were established on purpose because they are crucial when we talk about protecting rights. So we will defend our position and the budget in forthcoming negotiations. Thank you.

Q&A Questions regarding on the impact of the rental contracts on the budget and the Commission's reaction to the budget proposed for the Parliament.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Nils U&Scaron;AKOVS (S&amp;D, LV), co-rapporteur, -

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, -

Q&A Question regarding on how EU enlargement could affect the EU budget.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Siegfried MUREȘAN (EPP, RO), co-rapporteur, -

Q&A Question regarding on the consequences if the Member States come to another conclusion with the budget.