EU Commission unveils proposal for 2023 annual EU budget
The European Commission presented Tuesday the draft EU budget for 2023. Almost € 300billion to support the economic recovery of Member States, most of which will be spent to address the Commission’s priority of climate and digital transition.
The European Commission has proposed to set the 2023 EU budget € 185.6 billion, to which will be added € 113.9 billion grants from the NextGenerationEu, with a total of almost € 300 billion. The budget is designed to respond to the recovery demands of member states and its partners around the world. While priority will be given to spending on climate and digital transitions, the two main priorities of the von der Leyen Commission, additional proposals to address needs arising from the war in Ukraine will be presented later in a new report in autumn, based on a more precise assessment of its impact on the economy.
"We continue to propose extraordinary amounts of funding to support Europe's recovery and to address current and future challenges," commmented the Eu Budget commissioner Johannes Hahn. "The budget remains an important tool the Union has to provide clear added value to people's lives. Together we help Europe shape a changing world in which we are united, peaceful, prosperous and democratic."
Among the grants from the NextGenerationEu, € 103.5 billion will support economic recovery after the pandemic and address the challenges posed by the war. The other most important items in the budget for 2023 are € 927 million allocated to ensure the smooth functioning of the single market, which include € 593 million for the single market program and about € 200 million for anti-fraud and tax activities, and customs.
For public health and ensuring a comprehensive health response to people's needs, € 732 million will be allocated through Eu4Health, in addition to € 147 million for the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (RescEU).
€ 689 million instead will go to security, € 310 million of which will be for the Internal Security Fund, to combat terrorism, radicalization, organized crime, and cybercrime. Furthermore, in order to strengthen the resilience of the agri-food and fisheries sectors, the Commission planned € 53.6 billion of the EU Budget for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and € 46.1 billion for regional development and Cohesion. Some other billion are also allocated to research, protection of external borders, development of energy infrastructure and humanitarian aid to third countries.
The draft budget for 2023 is part of the Union's long-term budget adopted in late 2020, including subsequent technical adjustments, and seeks to turn its priorities into concrete annual results. A significant portion of the funds will therefore be dedicated to combating climate change, in line with the goal of spending 30% of the long-term budget and the NextGenerationEU recovery tool on this policy priority. The Commission's budget proposal will now be discussed by the Member States and the European Parliament, which will have to reach a decision between 25 October and 14 November.
While introducing the 2023 annual budget, the Commission presented also the Annual Management and Performance Report for the EU budget for the 2021 financial year, through which Brussels takes overall political responsibility for the management of the previous year's EU budget. The report highlighted that given the circumstances, EU funds “continued to play a critical role in the EU's response to the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences”. Overall, 34.6% of the EU budget and NextGenerationEU or € 146 billion was spent on the fight against climate change in 2021, putting, according to the report “the EU on a good start towards reaching the overall target for the years between 2021 and 2027”.
Documents:
2021-2027 long-term EU budget & NextGenerationEU
Annual Management and Performance Report