Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted 537 in favour (Conservatives, Socialists) to 126 against (Greens and radical left) to adopt the EU’s budget for 2014 to 2020.
Known as the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), it provides for 908 billion euros in payments against 960 billion euros in funding commitments, 3.7 percent and 3.5 percent less than in the previous 2007-2013 budget.
A third (37 percent) of the budget will be allocated to the Common Agricultural Policy and 34 percent to Cohesion and Regional policy.
The vote marks the end of a bitter battle in which the budget went back and forth between austerity-minded governments and the EU’s executive European Commission and MEPs, who wanted more funds to boost growth and jobs.
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