Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the potential economic fallout over a rift with China over the next decade have forced the EU to scale up its seven-year budget plans by €75 billion as MEPs queried whether taxpayers were getting value for money at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, October 3rd.
MEPs backed a European People’s Party (EPP) proposal by 393 votes to 136 to increase the bloc’s Multiannual Financial Framework by €75 billion lasting until 2027, despite criticism from the Right that additional funds would be wasted and directed towards worsening Europe’s migration crisis.
Despite the EU already contributing approximately €50 billion in aid to Kyiv, Jan Olbrycht, a Polish member of the EPP behind the proposals, said that EU money for Ukraine could run out as soon as next year, as he hinted at reluctance from member states to back the Ukrainian cause at the European Council level.
The Multiannual Financial Framework funds most EU projects, from security to administration, with Eurocrats forced to revise their original sums due to the onset of the war in Ukraine.
The European Commission first suggested ramping up the EU’s total annual €170 billion budget by €65 billion, staggered over seven years, in June of this year. The call came in response to the Ukraine war and the potential for other crises, with the Parliament’s budgetary committee stating that this didn’t go far enough, as they asked for an additional €10 billion.
The proposals voted on included an additional €3 billion towards emergent technologies, with a specific eye on the rise of China amid a general attempt to create a “strategically autonomous” Europe.
While the proposals easily passed the chamber, even Portuguese Socialist MEP Margarida Marques lamented that it was “always more Europe, not less” as she lobbied for additional funds for refugees.
Fidesz MEP Andor Deli pointed out that it was disingenuous for Hungarians to back the measures considering the risk that EU funds would not reach their country due to Budapest’s rule-of-law dispute with the Commission. French RN MEP Eric Minardi also said the EU’s actions were reckless in an era of inflation.
Hungary used a potential veto against EU money for Ukraine as leverage in its battle against the Brussels bureaucracy as the Commission freed up €13 billion in funding for Hungary in exchange for not objecting to support for Ukraine.
Similarly, Reconquête representative Nicolas Bay declared that the EU “spends without counting.” Taxpayer funding would make its way into the hands of open-border NGOs instead of strengthening Europe’s border defences, he warned.
Defending the plans, Austrian EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said the new funding arrangements had to be in place by January 1st, 2024, to avoid the funding to Ukraine being exhausted. The “geopolitical context” had changed since 2021, when the budget was first drafted, he added.
After being approved by the Parliament today, the budgetary increases will need to be approved by member states at the European Council, where they are likely to be opposed by Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia’s new populist government.
The EU is preparing to integrate the Western Balkans into the union by 2030, as many European nations fear a botched Ukrainian accession could destabilise the entire bloc and risk further conflict with Russia.
Fear has grown in recent months that the United States is offloading the burden of the war on Europe ahead of next year’s American presidential election. By all reckoning, European unity in support for Ukraine is waning as evidenced by the election of an anti-NATO government in Slovakia over the weekend as the war passed its 18-month anniversary.
