On the 30th of May, the European Commission initiated the budgetary (legislative) procedure and submitted the Draft 2018 E.U. Budget to the two co-legislators, the Council of the European Union (Council) and the European Parliament (E.P.).
Reacting to the draft budget, Sven Giegold, member of the E.P. for the European Free Alliance (also called The Greens), reacted strongly to the proposed budget cuts to most ‘key institutions and programmes of economic cooperation in Europe including EBA, EIOPA and ESMA‘ and commented that ‘[t]his is a clear stop sign for the member states which have proposed to cut the budget of the EU’s financial watch dogs without any justification‘.
Fortunately, the Economic and Monetary Committee of the E.P. (ECON), of which Sven Giegold is a member, voted in majority to undo all the budgetary reductions proposed by the Council, as well as against ‘cuts in economic governance and tax cooperation between member states‘. This constitutes a healthy impetus given by ECON and is an important signal in times of political turmoil and (relatively small, but still worrying) Euro-scepticism.
At this stage, the Budgetary Committee and the Plenary of the E.P. can confirm the position of the ECON, amend it or plainly accept the proposal of the Council.
Should the E.P.‘s position confirm ECON‘s vote of 30 August, pursuant to Article 314(4)(c) TFEU read in conjunction with paragraph (5) thereof, the President of the Parliament and the President of the Council must engage the conciliation procedure and set a meeting day for the Conciliation Committee.
Hopefully this will be the case, as the Council’s proposals to reduce the budget of ‘EU’s financial watch dogs‘ potentially represent a huge drawback for EU financial policy, the developing Capitla Markets Union and further Economic and Monetary Integration.
Read more here about the E.U. budgetary procedure.