Book Description

The EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) will shape what the EU achieves in the second half of this decade. This report is set against the themes of the EU's "Europe 2020 strategy": smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The report includes three principal recommendations: Common Agricultural Policy must be reformed; the EU's budget must not grow in real terms; the EU must spend its money more carefully. The Common Agricultural Policy must be reformed to release resources for other priorities, including research. One third of the EU's budget still goes on agricultural subsidies. Overall funding must be reduced. And the CAP must shift resources behind rural development (pillar two) from production (pillar one). The Committee calls for an end to trade-distorting subsidies, and a focus on today's challenges: global food security, biodiversity and climate change. The Committee found proposals for new EU revenue streams or taxes (own resources) to be an 'unfortunate distraction' on which it will be impossible to reach agreement. It also recommends that the Financial Framework be for five years, not seven as at present, so that it has more flexibility to respond to changing events - such as recent events in North Africa - and economic circumstances, like the financial crisis. EU mismanagement of large scale projects is unacceptable. And the EU's regional development funds should go to where they are most needed: the EU's poorest countries. And the EU should not spend at all where EU spending adds no value compared with spending at national or regional level.