Parliament biffs the 2007-2013 budget

The European Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the budget proposal for 2007-2013, which was agreed upon during the December EU summit in Brussels. The resolution rejecting the budget plan was supported by 541 MEPs with only 56 opposing it. "This proposal is distant from our expectations," the Chairman of the European Parliament, Josep Borrel, commented. The EUR 62 (zł.239) billion budget proposed by the heads of state in December is much less than the Parliament's proposal, which was higher by around EUR 100 (zł.385) billion.

The voting is a strong signal to the Austrian Presidency and the European Commission before the trilateral negotiations (between the Presidency, the Commission and the Parliament) due to start on  January 23. "Voting in the Parliament cannot be understood as rejecting the budget. This is just the beginning of negotiations," the chairman of the European Parliament's committee on budgets, Janusz Lewandowski, said. If all goes well the negotiations will be concluded in March.

The chance for a bigger budget doesn't necessarily mean greater benefits for Poland. Most members of the Parliament think that EU states should spend more funds on increasing the competitivness of the economy. Poland's proposal, which focuses on increasing expenditure on coherence policy aimed at reducing the distance between the richer and poorer EU states, has received less support. Poland would benefit from increased structural funds, while money spent on modern technologies and R&D is more likely to go to richer member states, Lewandowski said.