The European Parliament has adopted the final EU budget for 2010, which will be €141.4 billion in commitments and €122.9 billion in payments.

The main challenge for this year's budget was to find the funding for the already agreed but not yet financed economic recovery plan, which will cost the EU €2.4 billion next year.

The 2010 budget is the last one agreed under the Nice Treaty rules. The payments figure represents 1.04 per cent of EU gross national income (GNI).

"If we want Europeans to feel more secure in 2010, we have to implement this budget cleverly", said rapporteur László Surján (EPP, HU) in the debate preceding the vote. "This is why we are enhancing energy security, supporting the creation of jobs, introducing the microfinance facility. We support research and development and life-long learning. We want to help the milk sector and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change."

He added that there was an urgent need for a proper review of the EU's long-term budget (the financial perspective), originally planned for this year but now postponed until next year: "We haven't got enough room for manoeuvre. There are headings where there are no reserves. Thus, a mid-term review of the multiannual budget plan is inevitable."

ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN

The €5 billion European economic recovery plan covers the years 2009 and 2010 and supports energy projects and broadband development in rural areas. When it was agreed earlier this year, the financing for the second year (€2.4 billion) was not settled. After the last month's negotiations, the EU institutions have agreed on how to finance it: by using unspent funds and margins (mainly for agriculture and administration) for 2009 and 2010, and by the member states adding €120 million in fresh money.

Among projects in Britain and Ireland set to receive EU financial support under the recovery plan will be electricity interconnections between Ireland and Wales, the development of offshore wind energy projects in the North Sea and carbon capture and storage projects in a number of locations in the UK.

PARLIAMENT'S INFLUENCE ON BUDGET

The fresh money for the recovery plan, a figure of €300 million in emergency support for the dairy industry and €75 million in funding to help decommission the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria were among points in the budget that were significantly influenced by Parliament.

MEPs also voted to back a series of pilot projects and preparatory actions, ranging from the recovery of obsolete fishing vessels to surveillance and protection for Community vessels sailing through areas where piracy is a threat.

NEXT YEAR'S BUDGET

The 2009 budget, but not the 2010 budget, includes pre-accession support to Bulgaria and Romania, with €209 million both in payments and commitments. This heading is included in the 2009 total.

This annual budget was the last to be negotiated under the Nice Treaty rules, under which Parliament had no formal power over agriculture expenditure and certain other areas. With the Lisbon Treaty, Parliament gains full powers over the EU budget.