2014-2020 EU Budget: „Not ideal but a decisive improvement“

S&D Group leader Hannes Swoboda welcomed the deal struck today between the presidents of the European Parliament, European Commission and Irish presidency on the EU budget for 2014-2020. The S&D Group will discuss the details of the agreement in Strasbourg next week

Said Hannes Swoboda: „The agreement is not ideal but there are decisive improvements. The European Parliament’s key demands – especially on growth and the fight against youth unemployment – have been met. In these difficult times, we need an EU budget focused on growth and job creation.

„I welcome the increase in funding for the youth employment initiative, Erasmus for apprenticeships and support for research and SMEs. We will avoid a drop in resources that these programmes would have experienced from 2016 compared to the 2013 budget.

„I also welcome that extra funding will be made available for the ‚Aid for the most deprived‘ programme if member states wish to do so.

„We also got strong assurances that the overall €908 billion in payments will be used over the period to pay Europe’s bills.

„We urged the member states to stick to their promises to resolve the issue of the 2013 unpaid bills no later than 9 July.“