Where should we invest our money?

Published: 18 March 2009 y., Wednesday

Penki eurai
Building roads and pipelines, ensuring food safety, improving education, fighting discrimination and boosting jobs are all funded from the EU budget. In addition, the European Parliament supports the financing of the protection of the environment and aid for the Third World. MEPs set the annual budget and check how your money is spent. What do you want your MEPs to do? Have your say by voting in the European elections!

Your money for good purposes
 
A better life for European citizens is the main goal of the EU spending. So, where exactly does your money go?
 
Mobility: Roads, railways, bridges, airports, power lines and pipelines are built with EU money, to reduce disparities between regions and boost mobility across the EU.
 
Agriculture and protection of the environment: The EU supports farmers who supply basic foodstuffs while maintaining the landscape. Food safety and quality, animal welfare and the needs of rural community are priorities.
 
Education: The EU fosters student and youth exchanges. The Erasmus scheme has already helped 1.5 million young people study in another EU country.
 
Fighting discrimination: Ethnic minorities sometimes suffer from social prejudice in access to employment and social services. European funds create employment opportunities and combat prejudice. For example, in Spain the “Acceder” programme helps Spanish Roma acquire job skills, find jobs and housing and get access to education and health services.
Research: To improve European citizens' lives and successfully tackle the challenges of the modern world, the EU supports research into childhood diseases, the natural habitat, dangerous chemicals, safe food, more environmentally friendly vehicles and new energy resources. In 2009 the budget for research was increased 11% to help boost competitiveness in difficult times.
 
Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: Small and medium-sized companies (with less than 250 employees) account for more than 90% of European businesses. Making their lives easier will increase competitiveness, create jobs and bring growth.
 
Third World: As a global player, the EU has global responsibilities. It funds development aid in poor countries, peacekeeping in conflict areas and humanitarian aid for non-EU countries afflicted by natural disasters.
 
EU budget is decided democratically
 
The European Parliament scrutinises, together with EU ministers, the way the money will be spent and the actions it will fund. It is the Parliament which ultimately approves the EU budget each year and sets the amounts spent on less prosperous regions, the environment, investing in people and research and education programmes.
 
The EP also ensures that taxpayers' money is correctly spent. MEPs are empowered by the treaties to check the accuracy of spending through the discharge procedure.
 

Šaltinis: europarl.europa.eu
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

The most popular articles

Statement by an IMF Mission to Dominica

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Mr. Hunter Monroe of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department visited Dominica during January 18-28 for the annual Article IV discussions on economic developments and macroeconomic policies. more »

Experts request market management mechanisms to protect the farming sector

Experts in agriculture and government authorities coincided in requesting new management mechanisms and market regulation to protect the farming sector from the price crisis and enable generational changeover in rural areas at the European Congress of Young Farmers, organised by the ASAJA-Seville agricultural organisation. more »

Skills and jobs experts call for action now

Immediate action is required to solve Europe's skills deficiencies and give Europeans a better chance of labour market success in the future, says an independent expert report published by the European Commission today. more »

EIB lends EUR 115.5 million for environmental and small and medium-sized investments in Ukraine

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 15.5 million to upgrade water supply and wastewater treatment in the City of Mykolayiv (southern Ukraine) and EUR 100 million to finance small and medium-sized investments in the areas of SMEs, energy efficiency and the environment in Ukraine. more »

Antitrust: Commission confirms inspections in electrical equipment industry

The European Commission can confirm that on 20 January 2010 Commission officials carried out targeted inspections at the premises of producers of Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS). more »

State aid: Commission temporarily authorises Lithuania to grant limited amounts of aid of up to €15,000 to farmers

The European Commission has authorised today under the State aid rules a Lithuanian scheme worth LTL 10 million (approximately EUR 2.9 million) aimed at supporting farmers who encounter difficulties as a result of the current economic crisis. more »

World Bank President Says African Poor Still Vulnerable to Crisis, Important to Create Basis for Future Growth

The effects of the global food, fuel and economic crisis would be felt by Africa’s people for some time yet and it was important to persist with efforts to protect the most vulnerable while laying the foundations for future productivity and growth, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said Tuesday. more »

Just like the herders, we must prepare ourselves for hard times

Mongolia’s herders have learnt a hard lesson this winter; a lesson that can perhaps be applied to managing Mongolia’s economy. more »

DnB NORD Bankas ups initial margin ratio for repo deals

DnB NORD Bankas, the leader of the country’s in investment products market, raises initial margin ratio for repurchase deals for most actively traded Lithuanian and Estionian shares. more »

Pensions, unemployment under scrutiny by Crisis Committee

With over 23 million unemployed in the Europe Union and the jobless figure having risen in every member state since last year, how Europe is coping with the crisis and the effect on pension systems were discussed on Thursday 28 January. more »