The European Parliament’s Budget Committee has appointed Romanian MEP Siegfred Muresan (EPP/PMP) as the Parliament’s rapporteur for the 2018 general budget of the European Union (EU).

Muresan is the first Romanian elected the European Parliament's chief negotiator for the EU's annual budget.

“Negotiating the EU annual budget, which amounted to 155-160 billion EUR in the past years, is a very important mission and it comes with a great degree of responsibility. It is essential to continue financing EU’s priorities of economic growth through investments in infrastructure, research, innovation and youth employment, but also on strengthening the security of the European citizens,” Siegfred Muresan said.

On a personal note, Muresan would like Romania to absorb more EU funds in 2018. In this sense, Muresan says he will make sure that the necessary money exists in the EU budget to make payments on time to invest in important areas of Romania, such as cohesion, infrastructure projects, and construction of highways.

“But the Government also has to do its job and absorb this money,” he said.

Romanian center-right MEP Siegfred Muresan is the vice-president of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets, and already has experience in EU budget negotiations. This year, he has worked as a shadow rapporteur from the European People’s Party (EPP) at the 2017 EU budget, and was part of the European Parliament’s delegation to the budgetary conciliation with the EU Council, during which next year’s budget of EUR 158 billion was approved.

The European Parliament’s rapporteur (also called chief-negotiator) for EU’s annual budget sets the Parliament’s political priorities for the European budget and negotiates, in behalf of the European Parliament, the final form of the annual budget. This year, the EU’s budget amounted to EUR 155 billion, while the 2017 budget will amount to EUR 158 billion.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Siegfriedmuresan.eu)