Thu, 26 Apr 2012

The EU’s draft budget for 2013 was presented yesterday by the European Commission, putting €62.5bn (£51bn) into “job friendly growth”.

The total value of the budget is €150.9bn, a 2% increase on last year (currency adjusted).

EU budget and financial programming commissioner Janusz Lewandowski comments: “The EU budget focuses on investment and thus acts as an anti-crisis package. We will not restore growth by cuts only; Europe needs to invest wisely for its own future starting today.

“The vast majority of people across the EU feel the daily pain of the crisis as their national, regional and local governments have to make cuts. Therefore, a ‘business as usual’ attitude from the EU institutions is simply not acceptable.”