Tag: EU budget 2014-2020

Taxpayers and European governments would reap substantial savings if more resources were pooled at the EU level, says a new study that also examines spending on defence and diplomacy.

Twenty EU leaders have met in Berlin to debate how to spend €6 billion in EU funds to combat record youth unemployment, but a German Social Democrat leader dismissed the summit as a ploy by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

MEPs will hold two votes on the EU budget, said Alain Lamassoure, who heads the European Parliament’s negotiating team. Tomorrow (3 July) the Parliament will need to gather a qualified majority to approve a resolution on the political compromise passed last week with the other EU institutions. And in the autumn, the Parliament will vote to implement the budget itself, accompanied by several declarations.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite says her country's first time at the helm of the EU will be "a presidency you can rely on. We will deliver what we promise to deliver,” she tells EurActiv in an exclusive interview. Lithuania succeeds Ireland on Monday (1 July) in the six-month presidency.

EXCLUSIVE / Following the political agreement reached yesterday (27 June) on the EU's 2014-2020 spending plan, Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski told EurActiv he guarantees that conditions have been put in place so that the €908 billion agreed for payments over the seven-year period will be fully spent.

Ireland's transport minister announced yesterday (27 June) a “significant breakthrough” with the European Parliament on a new regulation that will see almost €30 billion in EU funding targeted at enhancing the transport, energy and telecoms networks, under the so-called Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

Having managed to reach deals on banks and the long-term budget, EU leaders have started their two-day summit somewhat relieved, as they embark on talks to tackle youth employment, finance much-needed investments and boost growth. EurActiv obtained the draft conclusions. Read our live coverage, below.

The new president of BusinessEurope, Emma Mercegaglia, has promised to make the leading European employers’ organisation more ‘constructively outspoken’ and pressure Brussels to swiftly act to restore competitiveness and boost investment.

Despite a high rate of approval for the European project, Lithuanians appear to have little interest in the country’s first stint at leading the rotating presidency of the EU, starting 1 July, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius told EurActiv Germany in an exclusive interview.

Commission President José Manuel Barroso yesterday (12 June) told the European Parliament that  member states should accept some of the chamber's demands for the 2014-2020 EU budget and strike a deal “as soon as possible”.

EU ministers are pressing to conclude negotiations on the EU’s 2014-2020 budget before the term of the Irish presidency ends in June.

European Union finance ministers approved a €7.3-billion increase in the bloc's spending for 2013 on Tuesday (14 May), as part of a deal to unblock talks on the EU's next long-term budget.

Lithuania, the tiny Baltic country that will take over the rotating EU presidency on 1 July, will have to deal with extremely heavy dossiers, such as the adoption of the 70 items of legislation needed to implement the EU budget for the next seven years, as well as preparation for the Eastern Partnership summit, diplomats told EurActiv.

Corruption is costing EU countries €323 billion annually, says a new report, defying Europe's image as a global front-runner in the fight against graft.

MEPs massively voted yesterday (13 March) “to reject in its current form” the EU's long-term budget for 2014-2020, agreed by EU leaders in February after 26 hours of marathon talks. EurActiv France reports from Strasbourg.

The European Parliament votes today (13 March) on a future agricultural policy that, if approved as proposed, would step back from a generation of liberalisation moves and ease the European Commission’s plan to set new environmental standards for farming. EurActiv reports from Strasbourg.

Poland changed the narrative that presented the EU's cohesion policy as something from the past that does not provide solutions to today's problems, says Piotr Serafin.

EU leaders applied a short-term approach to a long-term budget. But it is never too late for them to get back on the right track, Oxfam's Nicolas Mombrial told EurActiv Germany. 

With the EU agreeing a near freeze in overseas development aid, persuading citizens to back further national contributions will be a tricky but necessary task, says Irish Trade and Development Minister Joe Costello.

INFOGRAPHIC / Andris Piebalgs, the European development commissioner, has called on EU member countries to compensate the aid cuts from the bloc's long-term budget that were agreed by EU leaders at a summit last Friday.

Now that a budget deal has been brokered between EU heads of states and governments, NGOs intend to be uncompromising in tracking the spending decisions at national level, writes Markus Trilling .

British Prime Minister David Cameron won praise from his party's anti-EU camp with a successful fight to cut the European Union budget.

EU leaders displayed quiet resolve to agree a budget deal, with no talk of a veto, but now they must convince the European Parliament to approve the seven-year plan despite real cuts, Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaitė told EurActiv at the margins of the summit.