Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There is obviously a lot of discussion around how big the MFF will be, but just as important a question is the balance of spending within the MFF. From the Commission communication to the Parliament and the Council, the Commission reflection paper on the future of EU finances causes me to fear that the direction of spending points to the type of Europe that unfortunately we have. It points to a Europe which is a fortress Europe, a racist Europe, an increasingly militarised Europe and a Europe which uses taxpayers' money to finance private development and private profits.

To go through each of those areas, the first relates to military expenditure within the EU. In the previous MFF, not the current one, there was €1.4 billion allocated for security research. In the current MFF that we are in until 2020, there is €3.8 billion allocated. Am I right to take from the Commission's communication that the amount of money allocated to what is euphemistically called "defence research" will likely be increased, or the Commission would advocate an increase, in the next MFF? The Commission's communication refers to how best to support a true European defence Union. It reads: "Given the scale of existing national defence research budgets .... the research window of the Fund would need an estimated budget of at least EUR 3.5 billion over the period to make a substantial difference". It also reads that at least around €7 billion would be needed to co-finance part of the cost of defence industrial development, assisting the military industrial complex and that a separate funding mechanism of around €10 billion for that period would increase the EU's ability to financially support operations with defence implications. Is the Commission in favour of substantially increasing the amount of money allocated to defence in the next MFF?