COALITION GOVERNMENT FACES ITS FIRST DEFEAT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
EU Budget
A debate on European Union Documents No. 16844/11, No. 16845/11, No. 16846/11, No. 16847/11, No. 16848/11, No. 6708/12 and Addenda 1–3, No. 9007/12, No. 12356/12, and No. 13620/12 may not sound like an occasion that would get parliamentary pulses racing. However, these technical- sounding documents related to the proposal for the European Union budget (the “multiannual financial framework’”or MFF) and proved to be the occasion of the coalition government’s first defeat in the House of Commons. The agreement of the MFF
is complex. The European Commission first makes a proposal – a 6.8-per-cent rise in funding for 2018. It then goes to the European Parliament and also the Council of Ministers – the governments of the 27 Member states – for decision. The European Parliament supported the Commission’s proposal, whilst the Council of Ministers proposed a 2.79-per-cent rise instead. In principle, a deal has to be agreed between Heads of Government at the European Council in November. In the U.K., the Commission’s
proposal is subject to the terms of the Parliamentary Scrutiny Reserve Resolution. This means that the government cannot sign up to the proposal at a European level until it has been the subject of a report by the European Scrutiny Committees in both
Flags in front of the European Commission building in Brussels.
Houses of Parliament. The House of Commons committee recommended that the issue should be subject to debate on
The government proposed Rt Hon. Greg Clark, MP
the Floor of the House and the debate took place on 31 October 2012.
a motion criticizing the Commission’s proposal for the budget increase and stating that “payment appropriations should increase, at most, by no more than inflation over the next financial perspectives”. Moving the motion, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Rt Hon. Greg Clark, MP, (Con), stated that: “Frankly, the sheer lack of shame displayed by those demanding more of our money is extraordinary. They want more at a time when the International Monetary Fund predicts that government spending across the EU will fall by more than eight per cent between 2010 and 2017. They want more at a time when Mr Barroso, the European
Commission’s President, has said: “public finances must be consolidated” and that “sound public finances are needed to restore confidence that is so