Following negotiations, with MEPs stepping-in to step-up budget allocations and demanding more funds in areas reflecting EU parliamentary priorities of boosting growth, creating jobs and tackling the migration crisis, some proposed cuts in the draft budget have been reversed and a provisional deal on the EU Budget 2017 with the council was reached this November.

This month’s approval of the conciliated 2017 budget now secures an additional EUR 500 million , on top of the draft budget, for the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) - one of the main EU financial resources to support the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, that drives European and national efforts to ensure that all young people under 25 attain a good quality job, apprenticeship, traineeship or continued education offer (see ACA Newsletter Education Europe , October edition) . EUR 200 million have been added to foster initiatives for growth and jobs, among which Erasmus+  for student mobility places , as well as research projects in the flagship  Horizon2020 or COSME that supports SMEs.  To deal with the root causes of migration a reinforcement package of EUR 728 million is allocated, that includes an additional EUR 28 million in support of Palestine refugees and peace talks in Cyprus.

Commitment appropriations for 2017 total EUR 157.8578 billion and payment appropriations of EUR 135.49 billion. Promises have been made, in the frame of the midterm revision of the EU’s multiannual framework 2014-2020, that over EUR 6 billion are to be allocated for key priorities till the end of the financial period and greater flexibility in budgets is to be introduced. 

European Parliament