Text tabled : B7-0303/2012

  Kyriakos Mavronikolas (S&D), in writing. – (EL) The EU needs a strong budget if it is to attain its political objectives. The long-term budget should be flexible enough to deal with the new challenges and contributions from national funds should be replaced by other forms of financing. The framework of the 2014-2020 budget should provide ‘enhanced budgetary flexibility both within and across headings, as well as between financial years within the MFF, in order to ensure that budgetary resources can be appropriately aligned with evolving circumstances and priorities’. The lack of flexibility in the current system has made it extremely difficult to deal with new challenges. The smaller the budget, the greater the need for reallocation of resources to address unforeseen events.