European Parliament secures added finances for Erasmus+

EU flagship programmes like Horizon and Erasmus+ will see major financial top-ups after European Parliament negotiated an additional €16 billion on top of the budget package agreed to in July.

After EU leaders agreed to an overall budget of €1824.3 billion in a Brussels summit last July, European Parliament’s budget negotiators secured an extra €16 billion to be directed primarily at reinforcing the EU’s flagship programmes to protect citizens from the COVID-19 pandemic and help provide opportunities to the next generation.

This is the fruit of weeks of negotiations, with Parliament’s budget negotiators and the Council Presidency reaching a compromise on the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and on new Own Resources.

“Parliament’s top priority was to secure an increase for flagship programmes that were at risk of being underfinanced under the European Council’s July 2020 agreement, jeopardising the EU’s commitments and priorities, notably the Green Deal and the Digital Agenda,” a statement reads.

Budget negotiators devised a roadmap to help introduce new Own Resources into the EU budget. Apart from a plastics-based contribution starting in 2021, the roadmap includes an Emissions Trading System resource starting from 2023, a digital levy from 2024 and an FTT-based Own Resource together with a financial contribution linked to the corporate sector or a new common corporate tax base starting from 2026.

The three EU insitutions will be meeting regularly to assess the implementation of funds made availableon the legal basis of Art. 22 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, with expenditure spent in a transparent manner under the scrutiny of Parliament and Council. These institutions will be checking for any deviation from the previously agreed plans.

Better climate and biodiversity tracking methodologies will be implemented to ensure that a minium 30% of the total Union budget and Next Generation EU expenditures will be dedicated to climate objectives, and 7.5% of annual spending to be dedicated to biodiversity objectives starting from 2024.