Presenting a paper to the press, Goran Färm, S&D spokesperson for budget policy, said the group had decided that the current political and economic context would make it difficult to increase the EU's own resources and address budget reform in the right manner.
"We need to prove that EU spending is good for all," Färm said, adding that a majority of citizens view negotiating the EU budget as a process imbued with political horse-trading and vested interests rather than one which addresses the needs of ordinary Europeans.
The economic crisis has prompted many member states to call for a more restrictive approach to the EU budget, despite having given the Union new competences with the Lisbon Treaty and new policy priorities with the Europe 2020 strategy.
"We saw it in the first reading of the budget for 2011: some member states want to cut the EU budget," said Färm, adding that cutting the EU budget is short-sighted because on average, national budgets have grown more quickly than their EU counterpart.
According to the S&D group, the gap between the EU's own resources ceiling and the level of expenditure on the EU budget since 2000 has grown dramatically. This means that between 28 and 40 billion euro a year could have been mobilised to serve common goals and policies without increasing fiscal pressure overall, reads the group's paper.
Finding more money, but not immediately
Although many MEPs are calling for the Union's own resources to be increased via new fiscal means (for example, taxes on financial transactions, banking or carbon emissions), the time is not ripe for such a fight, says Färm.
Instead, the group expects the European Commission and the European Council to maintain the EU budget at its current size while respecting the EU own resources ceiling (1.29% of the EU 27's gross national income in commitments and 1.23% in payments).
"We need to make member states understand that it is not money lost, but that it's money well invested in infrastructure, education and research," stressed Färm, declaring that the new parliamentary committee will focus on priorities on the assumption that they will have to be financed.
Indeed, coming up with a model for new EU own resources would require treaty change and right now "we need treaty stability," the MEP noted.
Better synergy between budget and Union's goals
According to a report commissioned by the Parliament's budgets committee, synergy between strategic EU policy objectives and budgetary policies has been quite weak in the past. Only a modest share of the EU budget was spent on activities that contributed to achieving the goals of the Lisbon Strategy (EurActiv 02/06/10).
"The European project is achieved through a budget. If we reduce the EU budget, we abdicate the European project," said Stéphane Le Foll, S&D vice-president responsible for agricultural policy and the budget.
The S&D group warned against renationalising so-called 'traditional' EU policies – such as the Common Agricultural Policy and cohesion and fisheries policy - to serve other priorities.
"These policies have to remain adequately financed in the EU budget," reads the S&D paper, which also contains proposals on making those three traditional policies even more compatible with new priorities: climate change, energy security and financial and economic reform.
First things first: Simplify access to EU financing
The new parliamentary committee on budget reform is expected to deliver a report to be approved by Parliament before July 2011, when the Commission is also expected to present its proposal for the next multi-annual financial perspectives.
The committee will have to focus on the basics at first, said Färm. These include enhancing the complementarity of national and EU budgets, spelling out the added value of the EU budget in addressing citizens' concerns and finding ways to simplify access to Community funding.
"More and more beneficiaries complain that access to EU financing is too complicated, mainly due to the complexity of application procedures and expenditure control […] There is a need to achieve a new balance between the fight against fraud and improved spending," reads the S&D policy paper.
