EU Budget 2018 deal: EP boosts support for youth and growth initiatives

2017-11-22

● Provisional deal reached in the night from Friday to Saturday

● Boosting funds for research, Erasmus+ and to fight youth unemployment

● Cuts in funding for Turkey

MEPs have fought for and obtained better support for unemployed youngsters and additional funds to boost key initiatives supporting SMEs and research.

In the early hours of Saturday, the negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the EU Budget for 2018, three days before the end of the conciliation period on 20 November at midnight.

The preliminary figures are €160.1 billion in commitment appropriations and €144.7 billion billion in payment appropriations. Detailed figures will be available later.

Youth, growth and jobs

Parliament reversed the Council’s €750 million cuts in the “growth and jobs” area, and secured an increase for the Youth Employment Initiative by €116.7 million in commitment appropriations, raising the total to €350 million, to help youngsters desperately seeking a job.

MEPs succeeded in reinforcing with mostly fresh resources, on top of the Commission’s budget proposal, programmes they considered key to boosting growth and jobs, reflecting widely agreed Union priorities, namely Erasmus+, (+€24 million) Horizon 2020 (research programmes, +€110 million) and COSME (support for SME, +€15 million).
Refugee and migration crisis, cutting funds for Turkey

For Parliament, tackling migration and security are also among the Union’s top priorities. They managed to boost the Commission's draft budget for agencies with security-related tasks: Europol (+€3.7 million and +10 posts), Eurojust (+€1.8 million and +5 posts) and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO, +€5 million).
Similarly, for the external dimension of the migration challenge, they reinforced the relevant budget heading by €80 million (on top of the draft budget) on the EU’s external action, which includes the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods as well as Western Balkans.

Concerning Turkey, MEPs made sure to cut pre-accession funds by €105 million (with a further €70 million in commitments put in reserve), as they consider the deteriorating situation in relation to democracy, rule of law and human rights worrying.

Agriculture

The Parliament’s negotiation team has obtained additional support for young farmers of €34 million in order to reduce youth unemployment in rural areas. Also, payments for agricultural practices beneficial for the climate and environment were increased by €95 million.

Source: European Parliament