Verbatim report of proceedings

Tuesday, 27 October 2015 - Strasbourg

General budget of the European Union for 2016 - all sections (debate)

  Clare Moody (S&D). – Mr President, here we are again. This is only my second year of dealing with the annual budget, but already it feels alarmingly familiar. However, while the dance moves are the same, the music has changed considerably. In the last year we have seen the establishment of the investment plan, a welcome recognition of the fact that to build growth in our economies we need to invest. Unfortunately, the Commission chose to finance this plan for growth from the part of the budget that is dedicated to building growth. It demonstrated clearly that the straightjacket of the MFF as it stands is not fit for the challenges that we now face. Nowhere is this more obvious than with the refugee crisis. Both of these dramatic developments in the last year are areas where we are clearly stronger when we work together. But they also show the MFF severely limits effective action.

I therefore ask for work to be done on areas not just for the 2016 budget but also for an imaginative and ambitious agenda for the MFF mid-term review.