Tag: MFF

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 .

INTERVIEW / Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union's humanitarian aid commissioner, told EurActiv she was reasonably confident that the EU’s aid funding would not fall victim to the push by some EU member states to slash the EU budget for 2014-2020. But she also vowed to fight to preserve humanitarian aid, with “no apologies” made to detractors. 

Directly electing the European Commission President at the 2014 EU elections would “organise the disappointment in advance”, said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. Directly electing his own successor would be “even more absurd”, he added in comments that are likely to irritate proponents of increased democracy in the European institutions.

The attempt by the UK government to instrumentalise the need for further integration in the eurozone in an attempt to dismantle parts of the Union is highly unlikely to succeed, argue Fabian Zuleeg and Janis A. Emmanouilidis.

Western and Eastern European governments fighting over some billions less or more to the EU's next multi-annual budget (2014-2020) would better focus on how to spend this precious resource, writes Miroslav Mojžiš.

Leaders of the “Friends of Cohesion” group gathered in Bratislava on Friday (5 October) to discuss tactics ahead of the battle for the EU budget. Commission President José Manuel Barroso said the “Friends of Cohesion” should join the “Friends of Better Spending” in what he called “The Friends of Growth”. EurActiv Slovakia contributed to this article.

Each €1 invested resulted in a return of €2.1 from 2000-2006, while in science and research the return reached up to €14, Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

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.

Entangled in more pressing issues, EU leaders spent little time yesterday (28 June) discussing the future political architecture of the Union and its long-term budget, agreeing only on the next steps of the decision-making process in which the member states would have a bigger role to play.