Budget 2011: figures adopted in Budgets Committee

Parliament's Budgets Committee adopted on Wednesday the figures for the EU's budget for 2011, but the result still needs to be adopted by the full Parliament. The leaders of Parliament’s political groups will decide whether or not to include a debate and vote on the budget and related issues in next week’s plenary session agenda.

The agreed figure for commitments is €141.8 billion, which represents a below-inflation increase of 0.2 per cent compared to the 2010 budget.  The total for payments is €126.5 billion, an increase of 2.9 per cent.

However, votes on flexibility and the financing of the ITER nuclear fusion project were postponed to an extra meeting of the Budgets Committee which will take place on Monday evening in Strasbourg.

The Conference of Presidents – made up of the leaders of the political groups and chaired by EP President Jerzy Buzek – will decide whether the budget and related issues should be debated and put to the vote at next week’s session in Strasbourg.