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Confirmation hearings of the Commissioners-designate: Piotr Serafin – Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration
Piotr Serafin is currently acting Permanent Representative of Poland to the EU. From 2020 to 2023, he was Director of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. From 2014 to 2019, Serafin served as Head of Cabinet for the European Council President, Donald Tusk. From 2012 to 2014, Serafin held the position of secretary of state for European affairs at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Previously, from 2010 to 2012, he served as ...
Financing the European defence industry
Although the European defence industry is generally competitive, more than a decade of underinvestment has kept it from reaching its full potential. That has been the result of decisions made by Member States since the end of the Cold War regarding their budgets and policies in a completely different geopolitical environment. The significant under-investment in European defence is demonstrated by the severe difficulties the European defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB) has in obtaining ...
Annual EU budgetary procedure: Introduction to the steps in the European Parliament
The annual EU (European Union) budget funds policies and programmes that are in line with the Union's political priorities and legal obligations; it must also respect the ceilings set by the EU's multiannual financial framework. The EU's financial year starts on 1 January and ends on 31 December. The European Parliament and the Council are the budgetary authority of the European Union. The two institutions, assisted by the European Commission, decide on the budget in the annual EU budgetary procedure ...
Pan-European Public Goods: Rationale, Financing and Governance
Amidst a changed global environment and with the goal to defend its geopolitical weight, the EU should provide public goods with EU value added, so that efficiency gains can be achieved at the EU level. We propose an expanded EU budget to serve the dual role of more automatic stabilisation and the provision of EU public goods, where the European Parliament should have an enhanced role in setting investment priorities. We discuss three such areas of investment priority – infrastructure, defence and ...
Budgetary Outlook for the European Union 2024
Offering an overview of the budgetary situation in the European Union, this study continues an annual series of 'Outlooks' produced by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) over the past seven years. In seven chapters, the authors of the publication explain and analyse the EU budget from all angles. The study takes full account of the first-ever mid-term revision of the ceilings of the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF), adopted early in 2024, and the subsequent adjustments to ...
Performance framework for the EU budget - Concepts and practices
Performance-based budgeting has latterly become integral to the governance of EU spending. This study looks at the principles behind this approach and explores how it is being implemented in Cohesion Policy and the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The analysis reveals marked differences between how performance-based budgeting functions in these two frameworks and sheds light on both benefits and drawbacks in their implementation.
Plenary round-up – March 2024
Among the highlights of the March 2024 plenary session were the debates on preparation of the European Council meeting on 21 and 22 March 2024; the need to address urgent concerns regarding Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia, and the need to ensure the stability of EU agricultural production and impose sanctions on imports of Russian and Belarussian food and agricultural products to the EU. Members also debated the return of Romanian national treasure illegally appropriated by Russia. ...
EU's financial rules (recast)
In May 2022, the European Commission published a proposal to adjust and align the EU's financial rules to the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework. The Parliament and Council have now reached a provisional agreement on a new version of the EU's financial rules, enhancing the EU's financial interests. The new rules will ensure that EU funding is more transparent, more digital and clearly reflects the Union's values, as defended by Parliament. Parliament is due to vote on the provisional agreement ...
Parliament's guidelines for the 2025 EU budget: Section III – European Commission
The 2025 EU budget will be the fifth under the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021 to 2027. It will also be the first annual procedure that will fully apply and implement the new provisions under the recently revised MFF. The European Parliament contributes to the shaping of proposals for the forthcoming year's European Union budget through the adoption of its 'guidelines'. The draft guidelines, as adopted by the Committee on Budgets on 4 March 2024, outline Parliament's goals and priorities ...
Plenary round-up – February II 2024
The highlight of the February II 2024 plenary session was the address by Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the assassinated Russian opposition activist and 2021 Sakharov Prize laureate Alexey Navalny. Important debates took place on European security and defence and the war in Gaza. Members adopted a large number of provisional agreements reached in interinstitutional negotiations. Members also adopted several agreements at first reading, on which negotiations with the Council would be required in the new ...