During the meeting of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG), MEPs vote on the reform of the European Union’s system of own resources. The result of the vote are: 31 in favour, 4 against and 1 abstention. Statement by Gérard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE) co-rapporteur

Brussels

statement

meeting

vote

LEWANDOWSKI, Janusz (EPP, PL)

Committee on Budgets

own resources (T)

DEPREZ, Gérard (ALDE, BE)

Reform of the European Union’s system of own resources: extracts from the vote and statement by Gérard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE), Co-rapporteur

The Chair of the Commitee on Budgets Jean ARTHUIS opens the vote on the report by by G&eacute;rard DEPREZ (ALDE,BE) and Janusz LEWANDOWSKI (EPP,PL) on the reform of the European Union&rsquo;s system of own resources and members voting (13 shots)

Final vote on the report as a whole (2 shots)

Sign showing the result of the vote: adopted by 31 votes in favour, 4 against and 1 abstention

Applause and congratulations to the two co-rapporteurs (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (French), G&#233;rard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE), Co-rapporteur, <p>The major part of the resources made available to the union comes from the national budgets. And the governments of the Member States are having a harder and harder time to give the money necessary to finance the policies of the EU, because they need to tighten their own national budgets, so it is becoming increasingly difficult fro them.</p>

SOUNDBITE (French), G&eacute;rard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE), Co-rapporteur, the Brits were net contributors, meaning they put in more money than they got out of the European coffers, so there will be a gap of between 10-12 billion euro per year. So, since the Member States are having difficulties to finance that from their budgets, and since there will be a gap, well it will be necessary to find own resources to fill the gap and to finance the new policies that are becoming necessary.

SOUNDBITE (French), G&eacute;rard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE), Co-rapporteur, We are facing new challenges. The external borders of the EU are not well protected, we have to reinforce the border controls, more means are necessary. Secondly, we clearly see that the international situation is full of tension, that Mr PUTIN and Russia are giving us problems that we had not foreseen, so additional efforts when it comes defence will be necessary, better coordination of research, better coordination of the procurement of material, so we will need more financial means to handle it better together.

<p>SOUNDBITE (French), G&eacute;rard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE), Co-rapporteur, If tomorrow we decide for instance that we will introduce a a new tax, for digital companies. You know giants like Google, Amazon and others, which employ fiscal engineering and hardly pay any taxes at all for all the activities they have in the EU. If we say, now we are going to tax you, and a part of this tax will go into the budget of the union. The Member States will have to pay less, and we will have more resources.</p>