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Future EU Finances and Own Resources

I beg to move,"That this House takes note of European Union Documents No. 5973/06, the Commission’s revised Proposal for renewal of the Inter-institutional Agreement on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure, No. 6426/06, the Commission Contribution to the Inter-institutional Negotiations on the Proposal for renewal of the Inter-institutional Agreement on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure, and No. 7421/1/06, Draft Decision on the system of the European Communities’ own resources (//EC, Euratom); and supports the Government’s objective of securing agreement on the Inter-institutional Agreement for the 2007-13 Financial Perspective and the Own Resources Decision in line with the agreement reached by Heads of Government at the December European Council." The House will recall that in December 2005 the United Kingdom, in its capacity as President of the European Union, brokered an agreement on an EU budget that many said at the time would be impossible to deliver. In fact, the result was a comprehensive budget for the period between 2007 and 2013, known as the financial perspective. EU budget negotiations are inevitably complex, especially when they involve the challenge of doing a deal that works for all 25 EU member states. We were also working in the aftermath of a failed deal somesix months earlier, and in the knowledge that there was a realistic prospect that if we did not secure a deal, it would hold up the development of the accession states and delay a budget agreement by up to two years. In the EU presidency, we were determined to agree a budget that would enable the European Union to deliver for its citizens in the areas where it adds real value, and to make good our commitments to the new accession states.