EU budget 2022 stands - Parliament gets new employees

2021-11-16T02:26:53.024Z

Does the EU Parliament need up to 322 new employees? The negotiations on the billion dollar budget for 2022 almost failed because of this question. Not that much will be said about this after the agreement.

Does the EU Parliament need up to 322 new employees?

The negotiations on the billion dollar budget for 2022 almost failed because of this question.

Not that much will be said about this after the agreement.

Brussels - The European Parliament and the governments of the EU countries have agreed on the EU budget for the coming year after tough negotiations.

The agreement reached by negotiators on the night stipulates that around 169.5 billion euros can be planned in 2022.

This corresponds to an increase of around five billion euros compared to the original budget planning for the current year.

The money from the EU community budget is intended, among other things, to help contain the economic consequences of the corona pandemic and to promote environmental and climate protection.

A large part of the amount will also continue to be used to support farmers and comparatively poor regions in the EU countries.

Hahn relieved - point of contention: new employees

"Today we reached a balanced agreement, which is good news for the citizens of Europe," commented Irena Drmaz, a Slovenian negotiator for the government.

The financial package will continue to support the current upswing and the goals in the area of climate and digital policy.

EU budget commissioner Johannes Hahn was also relieved.

He should have presented a new draft budget if the talks had failed.

According to diplomats, a major point of contention in the negotiations was the EU Parliament's demand for up to 322 new employees.

Member States considered this claim to be insufficiently justified, but the European Parliament ultimately prevailed with the threat of otherwise breaking the talks.

The Croat Karlo Ressler, who negotiates for the European Parliament, explained in a press conference that the additional posts were necessary so that Parliament could properly fulfill its control function in relation to Corona aid and its role as a legislator.

However, he did not give details when asked.

In Parliament's press release on the agreement, the employee issue was not mentioned at all.

More money for health, youth, education

Basically, the negotiations also focused on the question of how much money should be planned for 2022.

The EU Parliament started negotiations with the demand that an amount of 171.8 billion euros be made available in the coming year.

The member states started with a bid of 167.7 billion euros.

They were just below the 167.8 billion euros that Budget Commissioner Hahn had proposed in his first draft for the 2022 budget.

Germany is the largest net contributor

The budget negotiations are particularly important for Germany because the Federal Republic, as the largest net contributor to the Union, contributes significantly more than a fifth of the funds in the EU budget. At the same time, the federal government is fundamentally emphasizing that Germany benefits more from the EU internal market than any other European economy. During the negotiations, German negotiating circles pointed out that in 2022, due to the “Next Generation EU” reconstruction program, more money than ever will be available for financing European projects.

The EU's multi-year Corona reconstruction program provides for aid totaling 800 billion euros after adjusted prices.

They are made available in addition to funds from the normal Community budget.

In the latter, the member states want to pay in around 1,074 billion euros in the EU financial period from 2021 to the end of 2027.

In order for the budget for 2022 to be implemented, the agreement reached on Tuesday night still has to be confirmed in a plenary session of parliament and a council of ministers.

However, this is considered a formality.

dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-11-16