Parliament adopts EU budget for 2011

The European Parliament adopted the 2011 EU budget at its plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The adopted budget reflects most of MEPs' priorities, while respecting the total limits laid down by the Council. In this year's budget negotiations, MEPs also reached agreement with the Council and Commission regarding several budget-related political demands.The 2011 budget, as adopted by the full Parliament, includes more funding for the priorities set out by MEPs, including youth, innovation, the Middle East peace process and Palestine. Some examples (all figures in commitments):

1a Competitiveness for growth and employment - MEPs won more money for the Lifelong Learning Programme (+€18 million), the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (+€10 million) and Intelligent Energy — Europe programme (+€10 million).

1b Cohesion for growth and employment - MEPs added a new line, worth +€2.5 million, for the Baltic Sea strategy

2 Preservation and management of natural resources - MEPs increased the environment programme Life+ by +€6.7 million and support for the management of fishery resources by +€2 million

3a Freedom, security and justice - MEPs won +€2.35 million for the Daphne programme for the fight against violence against women and children and +€1 million for prevention of terrorism

3b Citizenship - MEPs obtained +€4 million to support the World Special Olympics in Athens and +€3 million to the Youth in Action programme

4 The EU as a global partner - an extra amount of +€100 million for Palestine, the peace process and UNRWA

Regarding the overall figures, MEPs accepted the levels proposed in the Commission's draft budget of 26 November: €141.8 billion in commitment appropriations and €126.5 billion in payments. Parliament has always attached more importance to the level of commitments, since they determine the expenditure. Furthermore, there is an agreement between Council, Parliament and Commission that, should additional funds be necessary to fulfil the EU's legal obligations, there will be amending budgets during 2011, as the EU budget cannot legally have a deficit.

Parliament's two budget rapporteurs are Sidonia Jędrzejewska (EPP, PL), who has dealt with the European Commission budget (which includes the EU's operational spending, i.e. the bulk of the overall budget), and Helga Trüpel (Greens/EFA, DE), who has steered Parliament's work on the budgets of the other EU institutions.

Aside from the 2011 budget, Parliament had a number of political demands relating to the implementation of the budgetary provisions in the Lisbon Treaty. MEPs laid down seven such demands in a budget resolution adopted at the Strasbourg plenary session in October. The main ones concerned Parliament's involvement in the talks on the next long-term budget and on a new system of own resources. On the own resources issue, the Commission will present a formal proposal by the end of June 2011, so that it is discussed at the same time as the future financial perspective. Parliament's involvement in these matters was laid down in the Treaty (Art. 312.5, 324 and 311) but needed to be worked out in more detail.

News source: EU Press Room link: article

Kosovo politics could see shift

Kosovo currently is without a parliament, and all eyes are on the upcoming snap elections, set for December 12th. As parties form coalitions and prepare their candidate lists for the Friday (November 19th) deadline, public figures are airing their differences. Local experts say the political landscape is volatile, and dramatic changes may be in store.

"Pre-election coalitions and statements by some of the coalition leaders signal a change of political alliances," political analyst Muharrem Nitaj told SETimes. "There is an open possibility of the current prime minister forming an alliance with the New Kosovo Alliance, and probably with the minority parties. A second possibility is that of a coalition between the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), together with the minority parties," he said.

Many will be watching the trajectory of Uke Rugova, son of the late President Ibrahim Rugova. He and Bujar Bukoshi, who served as prime minister in Kosovo's government-in-exile during the Milosevic years, bolted from the LDK following a power struggle within the party. Rugova and his family have accused the party and its new president, Isa Mustafa, of humiliating them with a late offer to add the late president's son to its candidate list. He and Bukoshi are now fielding an alternate list, and have joined forces with Ramush Haradinaj and the AAK.

Haradinaj, who is in The Hague awaiting a retrial on war crimes charges, is one of several candidates who are either under investigation or facing a court case -- a fact that concerns EULEX. "[When] someone is publicly known to be under investigation or judicial procedure, it would be better and more honourable, and better for the reputation of Kosovo, if they would not present themselves for public office until they have cleared their names," EULEX deputy chief Andy Sparks said on November 12th. Two other candidates, Nexhat Daci and Albin Kurti, have had brushes with the law. Daci, who tops the Democratic League of Dardania's (LDD) candidate list, was found guilty by a panel of two EULEX judges and one Kosovo judge for misappropriation in office.

News source: SETimes link: article

Greece: Gov't finalises 2011 budget

The Greek government finalised decisions over a 2011 budget plan after a meeting between Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou and EU-ECB-IMF "troika" officials in Athens on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice-president and currently an adviser to Prime Minister George Papandreou.
The budget will be tabled to Parliament on Thursday.

Finance ministry officials said than an additional fiscal adjustment, following an upwards revision of the countryβs fiscal deficit for 2009 and 2010 would be made fully in 2011, with the fiscal deficit expected to be cut from 22 billion euros to 17 billion euros.

The memorandum, signed with the EU, ECB and IMF, already envisages measures to cut the deficit, worth 9.15 billion euros, with additional measures expected to be included in the new budget, measures aimed to save an additional 3.5-4.0 billion euros.
These measures will focus mainly on further cuts in public spending and will not mean more decreases in salaries and pensions, the finance ministry reassured.

News source: EMG.rs link: article

Romania plans slight wage increase, more job cuts

Romania's government is set to adopt a law on base salaries in the public sector, but wages will not return to pre-austerity levels. The good news, according to Prime Minister Emil Boc, is that salaries in the public sector will increase by 15 per cent next year. In addition, the minimum wage is to be raised by Lei 70 to Lei 670 (Euro 160) per month. These are among the main provisions of a unitary wage law which the government plans to adopt via a confidence vote in Parliament next week.

But for many public sector workers, the news has been met with hesitation, as salaries will still be lower than in July this year when the centrist government decided to impose austerity measures under a €20 billion aid package led by the International Monetary Fund. As part of the agreement public wages were cut by 25 percent, thousands of state jobs were axed and VAT was increased by five percentage points to 24 per cent in a bid to cut the country's vast budget deficit.

“For sure any rise in the salaries is welcomed, but the money I get is not enough for a decent living,” Maria Petrescu, a public clerk, told Balkan Insight. In a related development, the government on Wednesday decided to continue layoffs in the public sector in 2011. Under the IMF agreement, Romania must bring down to 1.29 million the total number of civil servants in 2010, from the nearly 1.4 million workers employed by the state at the end of last year. Furthemore, Bucharest has pledged to cut the budget deficit to 4.4 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in 2011, from 6.8 per cent of GDP predicted for this year.

News source: BalkanInsight link: article

Innovation partnerships - Parliament backs plan to tackle "societal challenges"

A resolution backing the EU "innovation partnerships" scheme, which aims to bring together EU, national and regional players across policy areas and industries to tackle specific societal challenges, was passed in Parliament on Thursday. The first partnership, on "Active and Healthy Ageing", should be launched in early 2011. The "innovation partnerships" scheme is part of the European Commission's "Innovation Union flagship initiative", announced in October. Parliament welcomes the Commission's plan to run a pilot project on "active and healthy ageing", the proposed first partnership topic, to test the most suitable format for such partnerships.

Besides active and healthy ageing, the pilot project should also include "social innovation which leads to a better quality of life, prevents diseases and improves social networks within public sectors", says the resolution. However, the Commission should also consider existing European and national structures when setting up partnerships and assess how to incorporate them, without unnecessarily creating new ones, says the resolution, which stresses that funding should be secured by effectively pooling the resources of the EU, Member States, regions and other public and private players, while respecting transparency, openness and equal opportunities.

MEPs consider that the proposed partnerships on "smart cities" and "raw materials" would benefit most immediately from the value-added created by promoting resource efficiency and efficient production throughout the supply chain. The "Smart cities" partnership would focus on improving energy, transport and infrastructure efficiency and management, while the "raw materials" one would deal with security of supply of raw materials, including their sustainable extraction, processing, recycling and substitution. Lastly, Parliament calls on the Commission to inform MEPs of the progress and results of the "active and healthy ageing" pilot project, and to state clearly how Parliament is to be involved in determining the strategic direction of future partnerships.

Neqws source: EU Press Room link: article