Siegfried Mureşan, rapporteur. – Madam President, on 18 November, after 16 hours of final negotiations, we managed to agree on the budget of the Union for 2018. Parliament, the Council and the Commission have managed to agree on the budget of the Union for next year, and the good news is that the European Union is capable of acting. We have a budget for next year and, more than that, it is a good budget. I say this with full conviction because we are allocating the limited resources we have available for exactly those areas which, at the beginning of the year, we defined together as being our priorities. Firstly, growth and jobs; and secondly, citizens’ safety and security.

We have allocated EUR 11.2 billion for research and innovation because this makes Europe’s economy more competitive, more future oriented and more capable of attracting investments. We are allocating EUR 2.7 billion for infrastructure. We are allocating EUR 354 million for small and medium-sized enterprises and EUR 2.3 billion for Erasmus scholarships so that the young people of Europe can travel, can become more competitive, can gain more skills and can be successful on the labour markets tomorrow. We are allocating a total of EUR 350 million to combat youth unemployment and we stay ready to evaluate this programme next year: if more is needed we are ready to allocate more resources. For the time being, we are allocating sufficient resources to give some prospect to those young people who are still looking for a job.

In order to bring more safety and more security to the people of Europe we are strengthening the agencies of the Union which have responsibilities in justice and home affairs and in combating terrorism. To Europol we are allocating EUR 120 million and increasing its staff from 550 to 576 people. For the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), the agency which manages refugees in Italy and in Greece, we are standing by the side of Italy and of Greece through this budget and putting enough resources into the EASO to manage the refugee crisis in those frontline states.

We are doing more on defence. We are financing EUR 40 million for a preparatory action on defence research to do more on defence at European level – because Member States want to do this, because it makes sense and because it will enable Member States to save money in their national budgets.

We are also supporting our immediate neighbourhood – the southern neighbourhood, the Eastern neighbourhood and the Western Balkans, those countries that are neighbouring the European Union – where it is in our fundamental interest that stability is being achieved and, of course, we are also giving some important political signals.

The reality in Turkey does not go unnoticed by the three institutions, and this is why we are cutting pre-accession funds to Turkey by EUR 105 million because Turkey is currently not respecting European standards when it comes to freedom of expression, the rule of law, and NGOs’ and human rights. We are putting EUR 70 million more in reserve money that will be made available subject to an improvement of the situation there.

We are also allocating EUR 4.9 million to tackle disinformation, propaganda and fake news. A preparatory action of EUR 1.1 million will be launched in order to instruct and train EU personnel in Member States, in the eastern neighbourhood and in the Balkans with regard to the risks of propaganda. The remaining EUR 3.8 million will be added to the budget for Union communication in states outside of the Union in order to better communicate the benefits of Europe so that people are well informed and cannot easily fall victim to propaganda.

All in all, it is a good budget. It is a budget which supports young people – young farmers, young entrepreneurs and researchers and young people looking for a job – and one which will provide more security to the people of Europe, and I kindly ask the Members of the House to vote in favour of it tomorrow.

I would like to thank the Chair of the Committee on Budgets, our colleague Jean Arthuis, my co-rapporteur Richard Ashworth and Jens Geier, who was in charge of the budget for this year and with whom we have worked closely, as well as the shadow rapporteurs and, of course, Commissioner Öttinger for having identified the right priorities and for helping us to put EU funds into those areas where they are needed, where they are absorbed and where EU money is well spent.