The European Commission has proposed a 4.9% increase in the EU’s 2012 budget, saying that increased spending was needed to meet promises to increase regional aid funding.

Janusz Lewandowski, the European commissioner for financial programming and budget, said today (20 April) that the draft budget proposal reflected “a delicate balancing act” between demands for austerity from member states and demands for more spending from MEPs. “The EU budget is an anti-crisis budget,” Lewandowski said.

He said the main reason for an increase was to fund payments for cohesion and regional aid programmes. “We must pay the bills coming from projects from across Europe,” said Lewandowski. He added that stopping funding for these projects would be “unthinkable” and could pose legal problems, not only for the Commission but also for member states.

The proposed draft budget foresees €132.7 billion in payments for 2012, and its main priority will be to fund programmes set out under the Europe 2020 jobs and growth strategy, said Lewandowski. This year’s EU annual budget is for €126.5bn, a 2.9% increase compared to 2010.

But Lewandowski said that there were savings in his proposal. The proposed budget recommends savings in the administrative budgets of EU institutions, including the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.
 
Lewandowski said the Commission would impose a “0% freeze” in its own administrative expenditure, meaning less money would be spent on training, publications, missions and conferences, as well as a freeze on new posts.

Lewandowski said savings were also planned in programmes that were not delivering results or where money was not spent because member states did not meet project criteria. These funds would be shifted elsewhere, he said.

Increased spending is foreseen in most policy areas, including cohesion and regional aid policy programmes, agriculture and rural development, freedom, security and justice, and for the European External Action Service (EEAS). The Commission is recommending a slight decrease in spending on initiatives on citizenship and a trimmed budget for the Galileo satellite navigation system.

Lewandowski said he expected negotiations between the Parliament and the Council to go more smoothly than last year, when member states and MEPs only just came to an agreement in time.

Member states have already issued pre-emptive warnings that they wanted either a freeze or a very limited increase in spending in 2012.

Francesca Balzani, an Italian centre-left MEP who is responsible for drafting the Parliament’s position on the 2012 EU budget, said the increase was too little to get EU nations out of the economic crisis. “There is now an alarming drop in public investment and if current trends continue, we risk hindering the future growth and economic recovery of Europe,” said Balzani.

Esther de Lange, a Dutch centre-right MEP, said that the proposed increase was too high. “At a time when member states are all tightening their belts, Europe should do the same,” she said.

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