The Council of the EU and the European Parliament today reached an agreement on the EU budget for the period 2021-2027, bringing the bloc closer to the implementation of its historic recovery plan of 1,800 billion euros. The total funding of $1.37 trillion is consistent with a budget agreement reached last summer by congressional leaders and the president. What is new is that the heads of state and government have agreed on the details of the 12 individual invoices that make up the sum. The final agreement will increase support for young people, police, climate change and local communities. The agreement, which builds on the Scottish Government`s most important commitments to invest $15 billion in health and health services, pay for child poverty and expand early education and childcare, will allow Tuesday`s agreement to allocate an additional EUR 15 billion to budget programmes, including the Horizon Europe research programme, the Erasmus student exchange programme and the health programme , as a Council statement calls it. Of the 15 billion euros, 12.5 billion euros is new financing, mainly as a result of competition penalties imposed by the bloc. The rest of the money would come mainly from the money changed. But the problem is compounded by arguing over how best to approach coronavirus, especially in the midst of the Confederation`s yawning budget deficit. The agreement, which still requires final approval by Parliament and the Council, paves the way for the seven-year budget to enter into force in January and lays the groundwork for Member States to launch the ratification process necessary to make the bloc`s new 750 billion euro collection fund operational. “The Scottish Government had already supported Police Scotland by increasing the budget by $42 million. We will now increase this assistance to a total of $60 million, with $50 million invested in frontline services.
The agreement also rejects the president`s harmful budget philosophy. The Trump budget would cut NDD funding by 9% by 2020 from 2019 levels and require deep cuts to programs essential to our economic and national security. Instead, the budget agreement provides for a $22 billion increase in defence and a $27 billion increase for NDDs by 2020, while recognizing that both are important to the security and prosperity of our country. The deal also omits a request from Trump to replenish $3.6 billion in military funds he converted earlier this year to fund border walls. On the other hand, the agreement does not seek to limit the president`s power to transform other expenses for the construction of the wall. Democrats may have felt comfortable with the compromise following a recent decision in the Federal District Court of Texas and decided that the president could not tap into existing military construction to supplement wall funding.