EU Budget Commissioner held a public lecture at EBS
In a public lecture held at Estonian Business School, EU Budget Commissioner Günther H. Oettinger said that he wanted to hear what Estonians think about the future of Europe and the future of the EU budget.
Photo by Raigo Pajula
In his lecture “Future of the EU Budget and European Funds” Mr. Oettinger focused on the EU budget, which currently amounts to ca 1 % of the gross national income of the Member States.
The European Commission will propose a new financial perspective in late spring 2018. Mr. Oettinger discussed potential budget changes in the aftermath of Brexit, the future principles of funding the EU budget to provide adequate financial resources for responding to important challenges, and the funding of new challenges, such as defence and migration policy.
In addition, Mr. Oettinger reflected on the potential of the budget in contributing to EU’s competitiveness in areas like science, innovation and digitization, the division of financing between the EU budget and the Member States, making the best possible use of every euro, and reducing complexity and increasing transparency of the EU funding programmes.
According to moderator Meelis Kitsing, Head of Department of Economics and Finance at the Estonian Business School, the Budget Commissioner’s lecture provided a platform for a broad discussion on the priorities of the EU’s new financial framework. “We need to think about increasing cohesion, efficiency and transparency of the EU budget instruments and allocating funds to those areas that contribute to the development of Europe,” Kitsing said.
Professor Arno Almann, Rector of EBS, noted that the opportunity to meet Commissioner Oettinger was a great honour and recognition for the school. “In the 30 years of its existence, EBS has developed into an important Estonian centre of excellence in entrepreneurship and business management. Having acquired internationally competitive business education, the graduates of EBS are well prepared for the challenges of the dynamic business world and are able to make a significant contribution to Estonia’s economic development while being successful in the global labour market as well. At the same time, the school needs to keep up with the developments and changes in the world and in the EU, which is why we are extremely pleased to have had this opportunity to discuss the EU’s financial perspective with Commissioner Oettinger.“
