Tag: EU budget

The European Parliament vote on the EU budget supports the reorientation of Europe proposed by François Hollande, writes French MEP Catherine Trautmann.

Three European civil servants unions in Brussels plan a strike two days before the EU summit of 7-8 February to protest rumoured additional budget cuts. EurActiv France reports.

Tackling the eurocrisis will require the right structural reforms and targeted investments, as well as correcting imbalances in public finances the European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso said yesterday (10 January) in Dublin, but he ruefully noted that some member states do not share the Commission’s vision.

Britain would damage its fragile economy and risk isolation if it ended its often stormy relationship with the European Union, business leaders said on Monday (19 November) before critical EU budget talks later this week.

Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has said she will block talks on the 2014-2020 EU budget unless she is offered a rebate of 1 billion Danish crowns (€134 million).

As EU finance ministers meet in Luxembourg today (9 October), Germany and France will step up a diplomatic drive to convince more EU countries, even outside the eurozone, to join them in setting up a financial transactions tax (FTT).

Cyprus tabled yesterday (19 September) a ‘negotiating box’ for the European Union budget for 2014-2020, to be discussed by European affairs ministers on Monday. According to the paper, ministers are requested to limit their presentations to three minutes.

German MEP Constanze Krehl was working to win a mandate on EU funds for the 2014-2020 multi-annual financial framework. She says EU funds will be completely revamped to support projects that fall in line with the EU's 2020 goals, but throws her support behind coal plants.

The Danish EU presidency says it has negotiated an EU budget for 2014-2020 that is “seriously open” to investments in climate-friendly technologies at the regional level.

The European Commission will risk accusations of double standards today (25 April) when it proposes a 6.8% increase in the European Union's budget for next year despite calls for fiscal discipline across the bloc.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said yesterday (22 March) that an EU-wide financial transaction tax could save EU countries as much as half of their contribution to the EU budget.

Just days before unveiling long-awaited proposals for the EU's budget until 2020, the European Commission has published a collection of facts on how Europe is financed, in a move apparently aimed at countering stereotypes conveyed by the Eurosceptic British press that it is over-sized and unaccountable.

Important political decisions, such as the EU's long-term budget and the bloc's enlargement to new countries, should be shaped up by prime ministers ahead of summit meetings of heads of state, think-tank representatives told the countries taking over the EU's next three rotating presidencies.

How should the EU's cohesion policy be reformed to meet the challenges facing Europe's regions in the coming years? EurActiv Czech Republic interviewed Fabrizio Barca, one of Europe's leading experts in the field of economics and regional development.

Hungary's EU presidency will focus on reclaiming some visibility for member states' presidencies after Belgium's turn – which saw the country move into the background to allow Herman Van Rompuy to lead as European Council president – and the contentious EU budget process for 2014-2020, writes global intelligence company STRATFOR in an analysis.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron can claim a victory at the 16-17 December summit which perhaps went unnoticed by the general public but was considered resounding by experts: the summit conclusions state that Britain has secured other EU countries' agreement that London will not contribute to future bailouts.

Some cuts to the EU's long-term budget for the period 2014-2020 may be necessary given current financial realities, but severe cuts would reduce the European Union's capacity to act as a global player, Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Audronius Ažubalis told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel meet in Freiburg today (10 December) to prepare a joint Franco-German position for next week's EU summit.

Struggling with budgetary pressure at home, Hungary and Bulgaria have nationalised their pre-funded pension schemes and excluded the cost of the reforms from their public debt figures, triggering a row with the European Commission. EurActiv's network reports.

The European Parliament is sticking to its guns by insisting on including in the 2011 EU budget "political commitments" which were recently rejected by the UK and the Netherlands, it emerged after a debate held on the EU assembly's premises in Strasbourg yesterday (23 November).