Treasury Minister answers Lords questions on EU’s Budget
28 June 2011
Justine Greening MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, appeared before the Economic and Financial Affairs and International Trade EU Sub-Committee on Tuesday 28 June and answered questions about the EU Budget proposed for next year.
The Committee explored how the Government intends to make sure that EU spending is constrained, given that it describes the 4.9% increase the EU wants in its budget as “completely unacceptable”.
The Committee covered questions such as:
- why public calls from Member States for spending restraint appear to have gone unheeded;
- whether the EU has got its spending priorities right;
- what contribution the EU can make to counter the effects of the economic crisis;
- whether new EU financial supervisory bodies will have enough funding to guarantee better oversight of the financial sector;
- whether the Government is satisfied with the European Commission’s efforts to get its administrative spending under control; and
- what the Government’s approach will be to negotiating the EU’s financial framework for the second half of this decade.
EU negotiations on next year’s budget begin in the summer.
The Committee will now write to the Government to inform the UK’s negotiations in the Council.