Il-baġit tal-UE li jmiss irid ikun strateġiku, responsabbli u flessibbli  

Good afternoon everyone, very nice to be here.
 
Let me begin by thanking Commissioner, dear Piotr Serafin, for bringing us together today. It was a pleasure to welcome you to the Conference of Presidents in Strasbourg earlier this month - a clear sign of the close cooperation between the European Commission and this Parliament.
 
This Conference could not come at a more important time. Earlier this month, as you’ve heard from my colleagues, we adopted our position on the next long-term EU budget. And in the next few weeks, the Commission will present its proposal. What we discuss today will shape the decisions that follow.
 
When we go back to any similar conference that would have taken place back exactly seven years ago, when we designed the current EU budget back in 2018 and 2019, the discussions were completely different. It was a completely different world. The word ‘Covid’ had yet to enter our vocabulary. Russia hadn’t launched its invasion of Ukraine. There was no energy crisis. Interest rates were near zero, inflation was stable, and global supply chains were strong.
 
That feels like a complete lifetime ago.            
 
And yet, the budget that we agreed in that moment is still the one we are working with today. It has been stretched, it has been adapted, it has been revised. But it was never built for the scale or pace of the challenges that we face.
 
But the fact that our Union managed to respond - to vaccinate millions, to support Ukraine, to protect jobs, to stabilise energy markets - this a testament to the resilience of our institutions, our leadership, and our collective resolve.
 
But it also showed us one thing: that our next EU budget cannot be ‘business as usual’. It absolutely needs to be more strategic. It needs to be more responsible. And it needs to be more flexible.
 
That is why we took the decision in the European Parliament to act early.
 
When Europeans voted last June - and those of us who ran for a seat in the Parliament - we all agree on one thing: that we received the clearest of messages of what citizens want from us:
 
First of all, they want a Europe that works. They want a Europe that makes their lives simpler, not harder. They voted for less red tape, they voted for faster decisions and they voted for institutions that deliver. ‘Simplification’ has been on our agenda, it has been the promise for years - but for too many, that promise is still to be delivered.
 
Second, they voted a Europe that should provide. That should provide good jobs, better infrastructure, and a fair chance to start a business, to buy a home, to build a future. Parents across Europe want their children to have better lives than they did.
 
And third, they want a Europe that protects. Where borders and values are defended, and where people feel safe in their homes, and on their streets. They want the peace of mind that we, collectively, can stand up for ourselves.
 
I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I can’t tell my voters that that’s too much to ask.
 
So now, it falls to us to build that smarter, stronger, and safer Europe. And how do we do that? We do that by delivering the budget needed to get there. At its very basic, that’s what we have to do.
 
Earlier this month, we adopted a position on the next long-term budget. Because the scale of the task ahead demands speed, it demands direction, and it demands - above all - clarity.
 
Our approach is built on three principles:
 
Number one: the next budget must be strategic. Every euro must support our priorities: whether that is security, or whether that is competitiveness. That means investing in critical technologies, clean energy, infrastructure, research, innovation - and yes, our defence. If we want Europe to lead in AI, in new medicines, or in space, we can’t do it with yesterday’s tools or yesterday’s thinking. Out of fourteen new emerging technologies, we’re only competitive today in four. That is the reality - quite stark - but we need to say it, and we need to see how we’re going to meet the targets that we have, to give the confidence that we need to give to our younger generation that is waiting to grow up in a more prosperous Europe, that makes life easier, with more opportunities for them.
 
Investing in our security and our competitiveness also means backing the sectors that keep our Union resilient. When we support our farmers, we strengthen our food security. When we invest in our regions, we fuel innovation, cohesion and long-term growth. When we invest in our young people, we don’t just support the next generation, but we lift the whole of Europe up.
 
Second, the next MFF must be responsible. That means facing up to the cost of NextGenerationEU, so that we don’t indebt the next generations. Under the current plan, one in five euros of the next MFF will go toward repaying debt. Of course we must repay our debts.
 
That is why this Parliament continues to call for a fair and lasting solution, and for new own resources - to repay that debt, without undermining our priorities. Because without new income streams, that becomes harder to do. This is about paying our dues, and funding our shared priorities. Because budget discipline and delivery go hand-in-hand.
 
Responsibility also means accountability. EU funds must never be misused - and access must depend on respect for our values and the rule of law. Also something that was not very boldly featuring when we last negotiated the MFF. But if there is one thing I know - and I’ve been a member of the European Parliament for eleven years - is that this becomes a much bigger priority. We’re not talking about one Member State or two Member States, we’re talking about a systemic regression of how funds and the lack of transparency. No access by national parliaments to how they are used, no ex-post assessment on how funds are delivered, no assessment also on when funds are recalled, and no assessment on audits. We see it on a national level, we get it on our desks when we’re faced with annual rule of law checks. And this could be something that is inbuilt in any structure that we have for the next budget.
 
Number three: the next budget must be flexible. I just mentioned some of what happened over the last five years. A war. A pandemic. A cost-of-living crisis. Natural disasters. We find ourselves in September-October having to very creatively look how we’re going to address urgent requests from our governments for help - urgent financial help - for something that was not budgeted, not predicted, and unprecedented. Flexibility can no longer be a back-up plan - it must be part of the plan going forward. We don’t have a choice because when crisis hits halfway through a budget cycle, we cannot be left without the means to act. When we look at the world around us, the world is changing too fast for a static budget.
 
Being flexible should not mean collapsing everything into one pot. Yes, fifty-two separate programmes is too many. Yes, we need to simplify. But not by pitting farmers against researchers, regions against start-ups. That’s not simplification. We must streamline where we can, modernise where we must, but we also need to protect what works.
 
If we want a budget that reflects what Europeans voted for, then this is our responsibility as parliamentarians, we need to be able to fully do our job - as co-legislator, as budgetary authority, and as the institution that holds the executive to account. It’s not about procedure - it’s about democratic legitimacy. Because after all, we’re spending taxpayers’ money, so the people must have a say about how we spend it. And I think it’s only fair that we are open, accountable and transparent when we do it.
 
We have self-reflected quite a lot as a Parliament. We have realised that some of our procedures, the way we work, were not as fast, as agile, as efficient, as effective as 2025 now needs.
 
Just as the world has radically changed since 2018, so has this Parliament. We’ve reformed. We’re much faster. We’re more decisive. We’re more effective. You saw how quickly we acted on the European Defence Industry Programme for defence procurement, or EDIP. Or the ‘stop the clock’ mechanism: the urgency and the vote took place within days. That is something that we can show those voters in June, who perhaps didn’t vote, or looked at the Parliament as being just one of many cogs in Brussels. They are perhaps going to change their mind, when they see how we act today.
 
The world has changed since the last MFF, but so has our Union: we have grown strong notwithstanding how difficult it was. We have managed to be unanimous when I thought we would never manage to be unanimous. We have found majorities that I thought would never be possible in such a diverse Parliament. But that also proves that we have adapted to the urgencies we have been faced with. That also means that we’ve listened to those who have entrusted us with the seats that we hold. That shows that we have stepped up.
 
So now we must match that strength with a budget fit for the next decade: Strategic in what it prioritises. Responsible in how it spends. And flexible in how it responds.
 
Because what’s at stake is not just another seven-year plan - but our ability to lead, to protect, and to deliver.
 
Europeans are ultimately not asking for the impossible. They are asking for a Union that works. They are asking for a Union that provides. They are asking for a Union that protects. We can safely say that we will work to deliver that Union, with a budget that puts people’s priorities first. And we can do that together.
 
Thank you very much.