EU Commission proposes 6.8% budget increase for 2013<\/p>\n
The European Commission has called for a 6.8% rise in the EU’s budget for 2013, saying investment is "desperately needed" to revive growth.<\/p>\n
The proposals will be a starting point for negotiations with the EU’s 27 national governments and the Euro MPs.<\/p>\n
Some EU members, including the UK, have consistently urged the Commission to scale down its spending plans.<\/p>\n
But the Commission says it has to fund previously agreed commitments. It says EU staff posts will not be increased.<\/p>\n
Under the Commission plan the budget total is set at 138bn euros (\u00a3113bn; $182bn).<\/p>\n
EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski said "there is a desperate call for investment" in Europe’s poorer regions.<\/p>\n
He said investment expenditure was the only budget area that would be expanded.<\/p>\n
For the first time since European integration began in 1957 the trend of growing the EU administration would be halted, he said.<\/p>\n
The Commission drafts EU laws, which then have to be agreed with the member states’ governments and European Parliament in Strasbourg.
\n UK criticism<\/p>\n
The leader of the British Conservatives in Strasbourg, Martin Callanan MEP, called the Commission plan "out of touch with the real world".<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Nigel Cassidy says the Commission has to pay for a string of long-term projects, such as infrastructure and research programmes, that it is legally obliged to cover.<\/p>\n
The Commission will risk accusations of double standards, as it has been leading calls for budget discipline throughout Europe, our correspondent adds.<\/p>\n
The draft budget earmarks 62.5bn euros to "job friendly growth" in Europe, of which 49bn euros is for structural and cohesion funds – investment in the EU’s least developed regions.<\/p>\n
The budget for research programmes is set at 9bn euros.<\/p>\n
In 2012 the EU budget was 129.1bn euros, a 1.9% increase on 2011.<\/p>\n
The largest allocation – 45.9% – was for the cohesion funds. Agriculture and fisheries took 40.8% of the budget, while EU administration costs amounted to 5.6%.
\n Hard bargaining<\/p>\n
Richard Corbett, an adviser to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, said payments for 2013 already agreed by ministers were now becoming due, as the EU works on a seven-year budget cycle.<\/p>\n
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said negotiations were already under way for the next cycle, 2014-2020.<\/p>\n
The goal is to avoid duplication by pooling Europe’s resources, so saving money nationally, Mr Corbett said.<\/p>\n
"The usual pattern is that the Commission’s initial bid is pared down," he added, and noted that just 2% of public spending is at European level.<\/p>\n
The UK government is thought to be among those who would oppose any increase.<\/p>\n
"The UK has been consistent that at a time when member states are tightening their belts, the EU must show budgetary restraint," a British government spokesman in Brussels told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
Poorer member states are meanwhile expected to lobby to keep the regional spending they say is essential for growth and creating jobs. <\/p>\n
source: bbc.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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