MEP calls for larger EU budget to protect cohesion funding
Azores GuideAndré Franqueira Rodrigues said new European priorities need new funding and called for clear budget guarantees for outermost regions.
Socialist MEP André Franqueira Rodrigues called for the next European Union budget to increase without taking resources from cohesion, agriculture, fisheries or the regions, during a forum on the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework in Ponta Delgada and the EU Regions 4 Cohesion conference in Brussels.
He said new European priorities require financial resources to ensure they can be carried out. The Portuguese Socialist delegation in the European Parliament said the interventions came at a decisive stage in negotiations on the next framework.
Franqueira Rodrigues said the European Parliament had found the European Commission's initial proposal insufficient and contested the concentration of several policies in a new instrument, as well as the risk of moving decisions towards national capitals.
He said stronger priorities in defence, competitiveness, strategic autonomy and innovation would only be credible with new resources. He warned that the funding level under discussion was below the European Union's needs, putting cohesion and the regions at risk of being among the main losers.
He welcomed the European Commission's new strategy for outermost regions, presented this month, but said their strategic value was not sufficiently reflected in the budget proposals. He called for clear guarantees and instruments suited to outermost regions in agriculture, fisheries, transport and cohesion.
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Azores Guide
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