For a fair, ambitious and effective post-2013 EU budget

The European Parliament is currently discussing the post-2013 European budget. 

The Commission is to publish its first draft of the EU`s next long-term budget as well as detailed plans on the bloc’s own resources on 29 June. Several EU States have already indicated that they want future EU spending to remain below inflation and continue to squabble about their "net contributions" to the overall budget.

But lowering the future EU budget is not an option if the EU is serious about achieving the EU 2020 and the 2050 climate and energy targets and the Member States must recognise the wider benefits and the added value the European budget can bring over their individual actions. If well defined, the EU budget can act as a catalyst, provide for economies of scale, pool resources and have positive trans-boundary multiplier and spill-over effects. The economic, social and climate challenges the EU is currently facing require common action and therefore a radical shift away from business as usual policies if we want to achieve better and faster results.

To be fair and truly transparent, the future EU budget must also become more independent. To this end, the Greens/EFA group calls for an end to the distorting rebate system and for the introduction of a true and meaningful `own-resources` system with the introduction of new revenue sources (such as a Financial Transaction Tax, revenues stemming from the auctioning of ETS certificates, carbon and/or energy taxes, a share in VAT, or a corporate tax). Such new revenues should also be used to increase investments at the EU level to help achieve all the different targets the EU has set itself, whilst reducing Member States expenditure in these areas as well as lowering their national contributions to the EU budget.

As for the fight against climate change, only about 6-8% of the total EU budget is devoted to climate policies at the moment. For the EU to be really able to face the climate challenge, appropriate measures must be taken to ensure the credibility and the achievements of the goals it has set itself- particularly if it is willing to play a real leading role at international level. It is therefore crucial that climate actions are truly mainstreamed via all the existing cohesion, energy and transport, agriculture and rural development funds.

The energy targets will in particular require more sound investments. Instead of allocating money to nuclear research and allowing more spending on CCS and conventional energy, the EU should make long-term investments in the energy of the future. It should thus give priority to the development of renewable energies, storage facilities and decentralised smart distribution grids, as well as in energy savings and efficiency measures. Not only would this enable the Union to meet its targets and save money that can then be invested in other key areas, it would also enable its citizens to make huge savings themselves.