Brussels 18/04/08: On Tuesday 15 April, the European Commission announced an extension of the consultation period for the re-examination of the EU budget. The purpose of the public consultation on the budget reform is to analyse how the European budget can be shaped to best serve EU policies and to meet challenges of the decades ahead. The consultation process is meant to contribute to developing a new consensus on EU spending priorities, on how the budget is managed and on how to fund it.

The public consultation on the reform of the EU budget, launched last September, has attracted ideas from various parts of society, but in order to enable all interested parties to submit a contribution in due time, the consultation period has now been extended by two months. The new closing date is 15 June 2008. Eurostep has already submitted its contribution and encourages other organisations to do the same.