“Someone says that the European Parliament has surrendered to the diktat of the European Council on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), ie the EU budget forecasts for the next seven years? This is absolutely not the case. Rather, I say that we have ticked off significant flexibilities on spending times as well as a commitment to renegotiate spending ceilings before the end of 2016, when hopefully the recession will have largely subsided, and to identify new sources of own revenue. And I add that, with the political agreement last week in Brussels between the three European institutions (Parliament, Council and Commission) on key figures and principles, the last steps in the legislative process will not be able to call into question the result already achieved ”. Giovanni La Via, head of the Italian delegation of the parliamentary group of the European People's Party to the Strasbourg Assembly, rapporteur for the 2013 EU budget and member of the Budget and Agriculture committees of the European Parliament itself, retraces – in this interview with Firstonline – the tiring negotiations that culminated with the approval of the 2014-2020 MFF and lists the results contained in last week's tripartite agreement. “In an objectively difficult economic and financial situation such as the one we are going through in Europe – he acknowledges – the compromise reached was the best that could be achieved”.
first online – Honorable Member, having followed the evolution of the negotiations very closely, you are well aware that on 13 March the plenary session of the Strasbourg Parliament approved by a large majority a resolution rejecting the final proposal which the European Council had put forward a month earlier on the plate: a ceiling of 960 billion in commitments and 908 in expenditure for the seven years up to 2020. In other words, the same figures indicated in last week's agreement. Or not?
Route - "Yes, certainly. But I repeat that Parliament has achieved a significant result. In fact, the agreement signed together with the European Council and Commission provides for the full use, I mean in-te-gral, of the total amounts indicated. A point on which there is everyone's commitment”.
first online – And does that change anything?
Route – “And how if it changes! This means that over the next seven years, the now 28 EU member states will be able to count on additional financial resources that can reach up to 26 billion. That is, the sum which, on the basis of the results of the previous seven years, can reasonably be expected would remain unused at the end of the period without the corrective provisions which the European Parliament, for the first time in its capacity as co-legislator, managed to get included in the agreement approved".
first online – What is the amount of unspent funds in the time frame of a MFF?
Route – “More or less yes, this is the prediction. In fact, it must be considered that the beginning of the seven-year period is, for the shopping stations (mainly the Regions), the time for choices. And that the initial delay has repercussions on spending in subsequent years. With the risk then that, in view of the goal of the end of seven years, hasty decisions are often made under the banner of 'let's do something anyway otherwise we will lose the funding'. And that sometimes useless works are carried out, and therefore poorly responding to the objective of supporting growth which is the fundamental reason why European funds were created and disbursed”.
first online – And what are the corrective measures proposed by the European Parliament and accepted by the European Council?
Route – “In the meantime, there will be a mid-term review, by 2016, which I have already mentioned. Then the rule was introduced according to which any unspent funds will not return to Brussels but will remain with the member states to which they were assigned. And furthermore, for the first four years of the seven-year period, it will also be possible to use the funds whose use has been foreseen for a specific year in subsequent years. With the proviso, however, that the expenditure ceilings for the final three-year period cannot be changed. In summary, it can be said that thanks to these innovative rules, European funds will be able to be spent better and in full".
first online – Honorable Member, in light of the disagreements that erupted at last week's European Council, you are quite certain that before the final formal approval of the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, the games between the three EU institutions will not reopen on the contents of the agreement that has been signed?
Route – “Substantially nothing will change. In the meantime, given that there would be no time: the last plenary session of the European Parliament before the holidays closes on Thursday the 4th, and the text of the MFF (there are 500 pages…) is in the hands of the legal experts who are refining the form. But above all because the three most numerous political groups (popular, socialist & democrats, and liberal democrats) agree in the decision to approve it. The only doubt can concern the breadth of a 'yes' which is not in question”.
first online – But doesn't British Prime Minister David Cameron's stiffening in the European Council on maintaining the "rebate", the "discount" in favor of Great Britain obtained almost thirty years ago by Mrs Thatcher, risk upsetting the cards?
Route - "Absolutely not. Cameron's request, still motivated by the fact that his country contributes more to the European budget than it receives, was accepted by the Council. And it will be balanced by some slight reductions in some expenditure items. Nothing more".
