AGERPRES special corespondent, Tudor Martalogu, reports: Romania must substantiate a clear position, as a result of real consultations with civil society, social partners and local authorities, so that our country sends a firm message regarding the future multiannual budget of the European Union, MEP Victor Negrescu (S&D group) told AGERPRES in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

'We are currently in the preparation phase of negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council on the future multiannual financial framework post-2027. The EP has a clear position and, in this regard, we are requesting additional funds for local development and agriculture, the maintenance of a dedicated health program, as well as adequate resources for education and housing,' said Negrescu, who is also Vice-President of the European Parliament.

In his opinion, Romania must ensure that it keeps the 60 billion euros provided for in the version proposed by the European Commission for the future multiannual financial framework post-2027 and identify major projects of European scope that can be additionally financed from the European Competitiveness Fund.

Another aspect that Romania must insist on is, according to the social-democrat MEP, the equalization of subsidies for farmers, so that Romanian farmers benefit from subsidies similar to those in Western Europe.

'The vast majority of public investments in Romania were made with European money, and Romania must continue to benefit from these common resources,' the Romanian MEP insisted.

It is also necessary to identify new revenues for the common European budget in the European Commission's proposal (of approximately 2,000 billion euros), given that, for the time being, there are no revenues agreed upon by all member states.

In this context, a few months ago, Victor Negrescu proposed the creation of European own resources from the taxation of online betting and gambling platforms, by applying an already existing tax at national level.

'I am referring, more precisely, to a 1% increase. We can bring up to 28 billion euros to the common European budget in the next multiannual exercise. This proposal is conditioned by two aspects: the money should go towards education, youth, mental health, the protection of minors and preventive actions, and also to combating illegal online platforms,' Negrescu explained.

These platforms currently represent 71% of the online gambling market, which means significant losses for national budgets and the EU budget, in the absence of a common approach and actions at European level.AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Mariana Ionescu ;EN - writing by: Catalin Cristian Trandafir)