site.btaEuropean Parliament Surprisingly Rejects Resolution to Amend EU Council Position on 2025 EU Budget

The European Parliament has surprisingly rejected a resolution to amend the EU Council's position on the 2025 EU budget. The vote took place on Wednesday during the EP plenary session in Strasbourg.

Negotiations will continue as one of the European Parliament speakers on the issue - Victor Negrescu from the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, expressed hope for a compromise to be reached next month. He stressed that the resolution had already been adopted by a large majority in the European Parliament's budget committee.

The Romanian Social Democrat put the blame for the rejection of the text on the largest group in the EP - that of the conservative European People's Party. Negrescu defined the result of the vote as "a failure for the pro-European coalition", but pointed out that he remained constructive.

During the debate on the issue on Tuesday it became clear that the European Parliament and the Council of the EU remain on different positions on the Union's budget for next year.

Negrescu, who is vice-president of the European Parliament, pointed to preserving the well-being of EU citizens as the main task. "To this end, in the current period of economic challenges, we need to invest in our competitiveness, as proposed by former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi in his report", the Romanian Social Democrat pointed out, adding that instead, the EU Council proposed austerity measures.

On behalf of the Hungarian rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, Peter Banai - state secretary in charge of the budget negotiations, said that the Council shared many of the European Parliament's priorities, but stressed that times were difficult.  The EU needs to be ready for unforeseen situations and crises and to maintain reserves, Banai said, defending the Council's negotiating position.

European Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn acknowledged the divergence in the positions of the European Parliament and the EU Council and expressed confidence that the negotiations will continue in a positive spirit and that the two sides will reach a compromise within a reasonable timeframe.

The 2025 budget procedure is the first full procedure under the revised Multiannual Financial Framework for the period 2021-2027.