EU to revitalize Europe's economy with 2012 budget

[News_Editor]

EU to revitalize Europe's economy with 2012 budget

2011-03-25 03:16:57 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- The European Union on Thursday informed that the 2012 budget will be the main tool to revitalize Europe's economy by focusing on employment, economic governance and growth.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution that includes recommendations by Members of the Parliament (MEPs) to the European Commission which is currently preparing the EU's draft budget for 2012.

"Today's resolution is above all a strategic document looking at the new role that the European budget must play in the context of greater economic governance," said MEP Francesca Balzani.

Italian lawmaker Balzani added that the budgets of the all Member States should be put in line with the major objectives of the EU which were established in the Europe 2020 strategy.

The 2012 budget will be in line with the five targets set in the strategy: employment, innovation, research and development, climate change and energy, education and social inclusion.

In addition, the resolution stressed that the ongoing European Semester must be used to improve the coordination, consistency and synergies between European and national public investments in order to achieve objectives more effectively.

The European Commission is expected to present its proposal for the EU 2012 budget on April 20. Budgets Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski recently said that he expected increased payments in the upcoming budget.

The EU budget is also an investment budget for projects running over several years. Next year will mark the sixth year of the current financial perspective (2007-2013) and higher levels of payments are required due to the advances of the projects, mostly in research and infrastructure programs.

Lewandowski said that payments must be increased by at least $1.41 billion (€1 billion) to $9.91 billion (€7 billion) in 2012 in comparison with the current $8.5 billion (€6 billion).

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