The EC proposes a new community budget for 2021 - 2027
Articol de Radio România Actualităţi, 28 Mai 2020, 06:52
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed in the plenary of the European Parliament a new common budget for 2021-2027, amounting to a total of 1.1 trillion euros, a higher amount than the one discussed at the European Council in February.
The budget is accompanied by a recovery instrument, called the "European Union of the Next Generation", with a fund of 750 billion euros.
The money would be borrowed by the Commission from the financial markets and distributed to the Member States most affected by the pandemic in the form of grants and loans. Romania will receive 33 billion euros from the recovery plan.
The European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has pointed out that money from the recovery instrument will be allocated through common budget programs and that the Commission will soon propose new own-resources, such as the digital tax or a carbon tax on the borders of Europe.
Ursula von der Leyen: The money for this instrument will be acquired by temporarily raising the own resources ceiling to allow the Commission to use its very strong rating to borrow from the financial markets. It is an urgent and exceptional necessity for an urgent and equally exceptional crisis. The recovery tool will invest in our social structure, protect the European single market and help level the balance sheets in the Union. In the meantime, we must focus on achieving a green, digital and lasting future, because this is the future of the next generation.
The leaders of the main political groups in the European Parliament said they were satisfied with the Commission's proposals for both the budget and the recovery instrument. The Popular and Socialist groups criticized the so-called "frugal" states, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, which said they opposed the entire Union's debt.
(RS)
Translated by: Radu Matei