EU Fiscal Policies

Today, the Commission will publish its reflection paper on the future of EU finances, the fifth and final reflection paper that sketches the possible future scenarios for the EU and its Member States.

The reflection paper follows the publication of the ‘Monti Report’ in January 2017, which was the result of the work of the High Level Group on Own Resources and included a list of recommendations for more transparent, simple, fair and democratically accountable ways to finance the EU.

The publication comes right after the mid-term revision of the current Multiannual Financial Framework and in the middle of the negotiations on the 2018 budget. The reflection paper will be able to feed into the negotiations for the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, which will start end 2017 or summer 2018.

In our new Policy Position on The Future of Europe: a future-proof European Union budget, we share our ideas on how to make both the expenditure and income side of the EU budget fit for the future. The Policy Position discusses the benefits of own resources mechanisms, highlights priorities for future investment and calls for a more citizens-oriented budget.

Final report and recommendations of the High Level Group on Own Resources: Future Financing of the EU

European Parliament report on a budgetary capacity for the Eurozone

Mid-term revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework

European Parliament Briefing on the MFF Mid-term revision

28 June Publication Reflection paper on the future of EU finance

28 June CoR adopts draft opinion on “Reform of EU own resources within the next MFF post-2020”

29 June European Parliament debate on Reform of the European Union’s system of own resources

11 July Economic and Financial Affairs Council

End 2017/ summer 2018 Commission draft for the post-2020 MFF

We believe that new approaches in managing the EU budget must be considered to make it an agent of change for a more fair, safe, sustainable and inclusive EU. In our recently published Policy Position on the Future of Europe: a future-proof European Union budget, the European Movement sets certain priority areas, which among others, focus on youth, migration and climate.

Moreover, we support the move towards a closer link between the funds paid out to Member States and their compliance with EU rules and values, provided the conditionality and different steps of enforcement are clearly specified. To ensure democratic participation and strengthen civil society we also propose the introduction of elements of participatory budgeting.

As argued in our Policy Position on The Future of Europe: a future-proof European Union budget, new own resources could furthermore provide tools to react adequately to economic shocks, provide resources to run EU programmes in priority areas, and address shortcomings in the setup of the Economic and Monetary Union. How those resources could look like and be implemented is discussed in more detail in our Policy Position on EU Own Resources.