EU Parliament warns von der Leyen: Revise budget or face rejection
The four centrist groups in the European Parliament are set to demand that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen make significant changes to her proposal for the EU's next seven-year budget, according to a draft letter obtained by POLITICO, News.Az reports
In an escalation of tensions between politicians across the mainstream spectrum and the head of the bloc’s executive, the groups will threaten to reject a key part of the 2028-2034 budget unless their conditions are met.
The draft of the letter, which is still being finalized, asks the Commission to overhaul its proposal, published in July, to meet the views of von der Leyen’s own center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the liberal Renew Europe group and the Greens. This quartet forms a majority in the European Parliament, which must approve the budget.
Lawmakers oppose the Commission’s “national plans,” an idea to pool funds for farmers and regions — which make up around half of the total EU budget, worth €1.8 trillion — into single pots managed by the bloc’s 27 governments. This is a change from the current system, where regions play a crucial role in handling the funding.
“As the current proposal on the [national plans] does not take our core requests into consideration, it cannot constitute a basis for negotiations,” the draft says. “We therefore look forward to seeing our key requests meaningfully reflected in an amended proposal of the European Commission, which would allow the negotiations with the European Parliament to move forward.”
The letter is designed to increase pressure on the EU executive to make concessions after weeks of stalled negotiations. If no agreement is reached, the four political groups will put forward a resolution rejecting the national plans part of the budget in the full plenary session of Parliament starting Nov. 12.
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