EU BUDGET: LUXEMBOURG ASKS MEMBER STATES: WILL YOU PAY FOR LISBON?

The questionnaire sent to member states on February 8 contains five questions, one of which is whether they support the Commission proposal to create a new section in the 2007-13 Financial Perspective (FP) called "competitiveness for growth and employment". The idea is to have a single budget line designed to serve the Lisbon Strategy agenda. It would include five objectives: promoting competitiveness in a fully-integrated single market; research and technological development; connecting Europe through EU networks; education and training; and the social policy agenda.

In the proposal, the Commission sees spending increasing almost threefold (compared to spending in 2006) to reach euro 24 billion in 2013. Total spending on this area over the period would amount to euro 121.7 billion, representing a share of just under 13% of overall spending under the entire 2007-13 FP compared to around 7% for the current FP period (2000-06).

The questionnaire notes that the precise breakdown for the different parts of this section is not known (partly because the Commission has not yet presented its proposal for the seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (R&D), which is due in April). However, it gives rough estimates of the share-out with the R&D component getting around 55%, EU networks 19%, education and training 11%, promoting competitiveness and innovation 3% and the social agenda 0.5%.

The questionnaire asks delegations for their views on the overall rate of increase of expenditure under this sub-Heading, whether they think this sub-Heading's share of the overall FP (13% compared to 7%) is "reasonable...