MEPs today voted through a pack of amendments, weighing 2.1 kg, to the draft budget for 2010. The amended draft budget (Surjan report) was adopted with 528 votes in favour, 68 against and 39 abstentions.

Vladimír Manka's report on the institutions' administrative budgets was adopted by a show of hands.

This, Parliament's first reading of the budget, will constitute Parliament's basis for the coming negotiations with the Council. The final budget will be adopted at the December plenary.

Support to the dairy sector

A €300 million dairy fund to tackle the milk crisis is one of Parliament's key demands in the budget 2010 negotiations, backed by a very large majority in a vote on 17 September.  The Budget Committee suggested that the fund be set up with €300 million.  Earlier this week, the Commission supported the idea, but proposed €280 million.

The idea of the fund is to help restructure the dairy sector, in connection with the Commission's phasing out of milk quotas. The fund would include measures such as supporting less-favoured areas, promoting sales and finding alternative sources of income.

The fund was backed with 528 votes in favour, 89 against and 20 abstentions. A S&D group amendment to increase the fund to €600 million was not put to a vote - it  fell when the €300 million figure was adopted.

The 2010 budget also includes other milk price crisis measures, amounting to about €600 million. These are broadly supported by the three institutions, although precise figures have yet to be agreed. In a separate vote today, MEPs also backed two legislative measures to help farmers through the crisis.

€1.5 billion more for the recovery plan

"Because of the crisis, the Council wants the lowest possible budget. But we in the Parliament, we believe that the Parliament has many instruments that should be used in an even better, more effective and more powerful way precisely, to ensure that the crisis can be overcome" said budget rapporteur László Surján,  in a debate with the Council and Commission on Tuesday.

To tackle the economic crisis, MEPs asked for a fresh €1.5 billion in payments/€1.98 billion in commitments - rather than taking money from other budget lines - to fund the energy parts of the economic recovery plan.

Background on the recovery plan

The two main parts of the economic recovery plan are energy infrastructure projects (gas and electricity infrastructure, offshore wind energy and carbon capture and storage) and rural development (internet infrastructure). Parliament and Council have already agreed on the size (€5 billion) of the recovery plan and the financing of this year's €2.6 billion.

What remains to be decided is the funding of next year's €2.4 billion. While MEPs think that parts of this - the rural development part - could be financed by shifting funds from other budget posts, they find it necessary to add fresh €1.5 billion to finance the energy part.

For each budget line, there are two different types of budget appropriations: commitments and payments. The commitments refer to how much the EU may commit itself to (e.g. sign a contract or start a tender procedure) in a certain year. The payment level regulates the actual payments being done that year.