The European Union budget for 2014 will be 135,5 billion euros under the deal reached today by EU negotiators, which includes extra funds to fight youth unemployment in the 28 member states. The deal, which cuts EU spending by around 6% from this year, takes into account new terms for the 2014-2020 EU budgets agreed by bloc leaders in February and has little wiggle room.
“I am delighted that we managed to reach an agreement with the European Parliament on funding priority topics such as growth, jobs, innovation and humanitarian aid,” he said Algimantas Rimkunas, Deputy Minister of Finance of Lithuania, which holds the rotating presidency of the Union. The agreement, reached after more than 16 hours of negotiations, includes €3,9 billion in support of job creation, traineeships and apprenticeships for the 19 million young Europeans currently without a job.
In reality, on balance, the money allocated corresponds to around 200 euros for each unemployed young person, objectively a little. The bulk of the budget - about two-thirds - will instead be spent on subsidies to European farmers and on investments such as road construction in the bloc's poorest countries in central and eastern Europe.
Today's agreement must now be ratified by EU ministers and by the entire Parliament before being effective. The European Commission had initially proposed a budget of 136 billion for next year, which Parliament had sought to increase to 136,4 billion.
