On the 14th of November, the member states reached an agreement that gave the Parliament an additional €1.05 billion for its priorities over what the Commission had originally suggested in the draft budget. According to the priorities the Parliament set forth in its guidelines for 2023, MEPs increased funding for programs and policies they believe are essential for addressing the effects of the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis, helping the post-pandemic recovery, and strengthening the green and digital transitions.

The total budget for 2023 is €186.6 billion in commitments, payments are set at €168.7 billion.

Moreover, MEPs secured additional funding for programmes including:

  • Erasmus+with €120 million to support students and teachers from Ukraine, humanitarian aid, plus €150 million,
  • the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund with a €36.5 million top-up,
  • the Border Management and Visa Instrument, plus €10 million,
  • the “Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument” (NDICI – Global Europe) for the EU’s southern and eastern neighbourhood with €280 million, and
  • Military Mobility with €58.8 million.

By supporting the green transition and biodiversity, MEPs were able to enhance financing for promoting EU energy independence and helping citizens and SMEs with their high energy expenses. Programmes that receive additional funding include:

  • the Horizon Europe research programme (+€10 million),
  • the Connecting Europe Facility, which funds the construction of high-quality and sustainable trans-European transport and energy networks (+€103.5 million),
  • the environment and climate action LIFE programme (+€30 million).

The COVID-19 epidemic is still ongoing, necessitating the need to assist national health systems in strengthening their resilience. As a result, MEPs argued for increased financing, recovering a Council cut of €200 million to the EU4Health program and obtaining an additional €7.5 million. Additional objectives that Parliament campaigned for and won support for include:

  • the EU Civil Protection Mechanism(UCPM, +€41.4 million),
  • the Creative Europe Programme (+€7.5 million),
  • the Rights and Values programme (+€3 million) and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office(EPPO, +€2.5 million)

You can find more details on the Parliament’s website.

To learn more about current calls for proposals or Eurodiaconia’s funding events, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Projects and EU Funding Officer Giorgia Signoretto at giorgia.signoretto@eurodiaconia.org.

Categories: Eurodiaconia, Funding, News