On December 17, 2014, at its plenary session Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) approved the draft EU budget for 2015 and a top-up for the 2014 budget with 443 votes for, 250 against and 43 abstentions in the French city of Strasbourg.

The budget foresees €145.32 billion in commitments and €141.21 billion in payments for 2015, and an additional €4.25 billion to settle unpaid bills in 2014.

ˮIt is clear that the amounts that we are to accept will at best only stabilize the level of European debt. What gives me hope is the payment plan aimed at decreasing the amount of unpaid billsˮ, said Budgets Committee chair Jean Arthuis (ALDE, FR), in the final debate on the budgets on 16 December 2014.

He asked, “Governments had accepted the political commitments but then they failed to pay what they owed. Do we have to recall yet again that payments are only technical consequences of commitments?”.

Furthermore, the new budget provides for 2 percent more funding and 1 percent more payments compared to 2014. The EU budget amounts to slightly more than 1 percent of the gross national income of all 28 member states.