Following the presentation to the press this morning in Bruxelles of the real figures - elaborated by the European Parliament service - behind the fake narrative on the EU budget spread by the European Commission, the S&D’s negotiator for post 2020 MFF, Isabelle Thomas, said:

 

“There is a lack of transparency and clarity, if not even of good faith, over the figures and methodology used by the EU Commission in its MFF presentation. It seems the Commission has been playing a shell game with the book’s figures whilst, according to Parliament’s own analysis, the proposed cuts are much higher and the increases are much lower than stated by the Commission.

 

“The global level of the next MFF will in fact be set at 1.08% of the EU-27 GNI and not at 1.11% as proclaimed. This is less than the current one (1.13% of the EU-27 GNI) despite the additional funding needed for new political priorities and emerging challenges for the Union.

 

“Moreover, the EU Commission proposal reduces the level of both the agricultural policy (CAP) and the cohesion policy by more than 15% and 10% respectively, including a 6% reduction for the European Social Funds despite its enlarged scope and the integration of the Youth Employment Initiative.

 

“In other words, the future Multiannual Financial Framework is still focusing on austerity; it widely sacrifices solidarity based policies. In the long term, this MFF risks being largely inadequate to cope with not only the current goals and the new challenges ahead of us. The S&D Group, the EU Parliament, will not remain silent. The battle for the future of the EU has just started.”