Parliament's position on the 2011 draft budget

The EU budget is the Union's central overarching policy instrument deciding on expenditure in domains as varied as subsidies for bullfighting, pilot programmes for peace-building instruments in the European External Action Service (EEAS), and agricultural export subsidies, which can harm farmers in developing countries.

At the end of each year, the Commission submits a proposal, which is amended by the Member States and Parliament, in that order.

The Council and Parliament then team up to produce a final joint text, on which Parliament votes

The Greens believe that the EU budget should be used to promote European and international solidarity, sustainable investment, and European integration to create synergies which cannot be achieved at national level.

Every year we fight for a budget that promotes the ecological and social transformation of Europe's economy.

The budget serves as a powerful economic stimulant for many European regions, and this is especially important in the context of the current crisis.

It can also break new ground in other domains, triggering snowball effects.

For all these reasons, the Greens want a well-funded EU budget.

Some of the Greens' key ideas were successfully adopted in the 2011 EU budget, like the mainstreaming of 'fair trade' principles into external trade and development budget lines.

Other adopted Green proposals concerned domains including cycling, support for farmers' and consumers' initiatives for lowering CO2 emissions, one-stop-shops designed to encourage building renovation and nano research.

Amendments tabled by the Greens that failed to gain the necessary support included proposals about cancelling agricultural export subsidies, the creation of a financial facility for sustainable energy projects and the discontinuation of subsidies for nuclear reactors, including the extremely expensive ITER fusion reactor.

We also failed to prevent EU funds from being used to finance lethal forms of bullfighting.