Today in Strasbourg, during the European Parliament’s plenary session, a discussion took place titled “A Revised Long-Term Budget for the Union in a Changing World.” PiS MEP Bogdan Rzońca spoke on behalf of the ECR Group during the debate.
The coordinator for the European Conservatives and Reformists in the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) stated that the document under discussion “is not bold enough for the difficult times we are facing.” “Above all, we need to make spending more realistic—cut costs wherever possible,” Rzońca emphasized, pointing out that, for example, gender budgeting is not a top priority. He cited the continued embrace of the Green Deal as another misstep. “It’s an economic mistake that stifles entrepreneurship and drives companies to flee the European Union for other continents,” he noted. According to Rzońca, doctrinal decarbonization is also a mistake. “After all, coal and gas are natural resources; they are a reliable source of energy,” — the PiS politician pointed out, noting that, for example, coal- and gas-fired power plants in the U.S. are nearly zero-emission, while wind farms and solar power are becoming increasingly expensive because metals and energy are becoming more costly.
Speaking on the issue of own resources, Bogdan Rzońca stated that proposals for them to exceed 1 percent are difficult to implement because there aren’t many countries willing to pay amounts of that magnitude. “So what’s being proposed? More debt,” the MEP noted, emphasizing that this is a fundamental mistake by the European Union, even if it concerns noble goals such as defense or security. “But we already know that the European Commission has ‘broken away’ from the European Parliament—it governs on its own, ignoring the Parliament’s recommendations, and tries to blackmail individual countries. And this is what we fear greatly, so let’s give more power to the nation-states within the European Union. This will strengthen both the Union and the budget,” he emphasized.
