Parliament sets up special committee on EU budget reform

MEPs decided on Wednesday to create a special committee to prepare for the EU's next long-term budgetary framework. Starting in July 2010, this committee will work out Parliament's budget priorities and propose how the EU budget should be financed in future. The members of the new committee will be decided at a vote tomorrow, Thursday.

The committee will have 50 members and its main task will be to prepare work on the EU's next long-term budget framework (also known as the "financial perspective" or multiannual financial framework, MFF) starting from 2014. The current long-term budget framework covers 2007-2013.

The formal description of the new committee's work is "the policy challenges and budgetary resources for a sustainable European Union after 2013", which includes six key tasks:

to define Parliament's priorities for the EU's next long-term budget framework, in both political and budgetary terms,

to estimate how much money the EU will need to achieve its objectives,

to define the duration of the next long-term budget framework (this has traditionally been seven years but MEPs want to adjust it to match the mandates of the Parliament and the Commission),

to propose a structure for future long-term budget frameworks,

to draw up guidelines on  how  resources should be distributed within and between different parts ("headings") of the EU budget,

to specify the link between a reform of the EU's financing system and a review of expenditure, so as to provide the Budgets Committee with a basis for the forthcoming MFF negotiations.

The committee will present the results of its work in a report, to be approved by Parliament before July 2011, when the Commission is to present its proposal for the next MFF.

The new committee is scheduled to have its first meeting during the July session in Strasbourg. At this meeting the members will elect a chair, a vice-chair and a rapporteur.

Background

The European Parliament currently a special committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis. One role of the new committee would be to follow up the work of the special committee.

During preparations for the current long-term budget framework, in 2004/2005, MEPs also set up a temporary committee.