Commission to follow suit on reporting the true public consultation results?

EU |  Representatives of business, environment, tax payers and science community have jointly sent a letter to the President Barroso, urging the Commission to report the true results of the public consultation on the EU budget.

President of the EU-Commission, Mr. José Manuel Barroso.
Photo: Virginia Mayo

On November 11th, the Commissioners gathered informally to discuss the content of a controversial Commission report to be published before the end of this year. The report is supposed to comment on the result from a public consultation and has already provoked harsh criticism from regional offices and farming lobby. The reason? The report is delivering just that.

This overarching consultation included all Member States’ official contributions, over 2000 people in 20 countries who lively debated the EU budget reform, and which counted no less than 300 contributions from a broad range of stakeholders, including universities, the private sector and NGOs.

The results of the open consultation are clear. There is a broad consensus for a substantial EU budget reform, towards a modern budget which can help the EU tackling both current and future challenges. Among these common challenges are climate change, global competitiveness, energy supply and inequalities between countries and regions. The consultation gives strong support for a new direction in EU spending towards competitiveness, research and innovation, environment, climate change and energy. There is also support for redirecting cohesion spending to less developed Member States and regions and for reforming agriculture spending

The final report might very well turn its back on the actual results in favour of narrow, but strong interests from the recipients of two thirds of the EU budget. The large majority, who are in favour of reforming the EU budget, cannot continue to remain silent.

In a joint letter, representatives of the business, environment, tax payers and science community are taking a stand for a substantive reform of the EU budget. We urge the Commission to act on the basis of the results of the public consultation.