EU Parliament committee clears 2014-20 budget
(BRUSSELS) - The European Parliament's budget committee cleared Thursday a contested trillion-euro 2014-20 EU budget that includes a first ever spending cut, paving the way for its full approval next week.
The agreement on the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) -- based on 908 billion euros in payments set against 960 billion euros in member state funding commitments -- paves the way for a vote by the full parliament on November 19.
The committee voted 28 for, five against the budget which has been going back and forth between MEPs, member states and the European Commission, which has tried to hold the line on spending cuts sought by hard-up national governments.
"I heave a real sigh of relief," said French Conservative MEP Alain Lamassoure, head of the committee.
"We have managed to improve the budget ... making it a source of investment funds for the long-term," Belgian Conservative MEP Jean-Luc Dehaene said.
In exchange for accepting the overall spending cut, the European Parliament obtained an additional 11.2 billion euros to make up a 2013 budget shortfall and a performance review of the MFF in 2016.
The last hurdle to Parliament approval was cleared Tuesday when negotiators reached a deal on the 2014 budget which put member state contributions at 135.5 billion euros ($182 billion), down around 7.0 percent.
Austerity-minded governments had wanted to keep their payments under 135 billion euros, which was one billion and 1.5 billion euros less than sought by the EU executive and parliament, respectively.