The four largest political groups in the European Parliament are united in believing that it is now time to endow the Union with more budgetary autonomy, to end the destructive disputes over net national contributions and to find a sustainable source of revenue that has legitimacy with the citizens of Europe.

The current financial climate is admittedly tough, with many Member States having to make substantial cuts in public expenditure in order to reduce the burden on future generations of Europeans. The European Union must also play its part in not calling for unreasonable budgetary increases.

However Member States also need to recognise that they can make considerable savings (e.g. on defence, R&D, overseas aid, transport and energy infrastructure) by pooling funds for such common projects. The EU budget should not be considered a zero-sum game. Everyone gains by sharing resources.

Secondly, now that the Lisbon Treaty is in force, endowing the Union with new competences and tasks we need to settle the issue of own resources by agreeing on a more autonomous revenue stream than the current dependence on net GNI transfers. Member States must politically commit now to agree to change the system. We wish to see such a commitment emerge as part of an overall political deal on the 2011 budget where both sides show goodwill and a vision for the future financing of our Union.

Joseph Daul                          EPP group

Martin Schulz                        S&D group

Guy Verhofstadt                    ALDE group

Daniel Cohn-Bendit             Green/EFA group

& Rebecca Harms