EU budget to 2020 confirmed as legal contest on pay concludes
THE BUDGET of the European Union for 2014-2020 was finally approved yesterday, after two years of horse-trading and a legal battle over whether EU officials should be entitled to a pay rise.
The EU’s court of justice yesterday determined that the EU Council of ministers from member states was within its rights to reject a 1.7 per cent pay hike.
The European Parliament also voted to approve the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) yesterday, which cuts spending in real terms for the first time, by 3.5 per cent in comparison to the current framework, which has run since 2007. Overall payments amount to €135.5bn (£113.8bn) next year, which the council says is 6.2 per cent below this year’s budget.
President of the European parliament Martin Schulz said the body “would have preferred a much more ambitious MFF”.