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After obtaining more funds for R & D and Erasmus, the EP gave the green light to the European budget for 2019. Read our interview with Daniele Viotti and learn about Parliament's priorities.

How would you describe Parliament's proposal on next year's budget?

This year we have worked on two very important aspects for Europe. One is the young and another is the migration crisis, although for me it is not a crisis but a situation.

We work a lot in the Horizon research program, in the infrastructure support program Connect Europe, (CEF); in the COSME program, which helps small and medium enterprises, as well as in the Youth Guarantee. We want to restore all the cuts proposed by the Council in July.

We want to challenge the Council on migration, face the geopolitical challenges of the EU and help migrants, as well as potential migrants. We want to fight poverty and hunger, and help third countries in Africa and wherever they develop their industries, economy and infrastructure.

I hope the Council understands that we are responding to the concerns of many Member States. If the Council asks me to cut back, I will challenge you. The negotiations will be a great challenge.

For once all the institutions propose to increase next year's budget with respect to this year's. What do you think?

Our programs are expanding and more and more universities, SMEs and local authorities are requesting funds for their projects. For this reason we need more money next year.

We are halfway through the current multi-year financial framework (MFF), the long-term European budget, so we are starting to disburse money for the projects. I do not want us to end up in the same situation as in 2014, that we had a payment crisis.

The Council has proposed cuts in several programs this year. Which ones will you hurt the most, in your opinion, and what consequences will they have?

The worst is the point of view of all the years of the Council. It is not just a cut here and there. They have a vision of a very small Europe. They always ask the Commission to do more in emergency situations, but every year they want to contribute less.

If I have to choose, the worst thing is to cut back on the CEF, COSME and the Youth Guarantee programs because this means cutting back on our future. If we want to compete with China, the United States and India, we have to invest in research, energy, development ... Not understanding the reason for the cuts.

According to estimates, only 19.3% of the EU budget covering 2014-2020 will go to climate measures, below the target of 20%. For what is this?

I do not know, but that's why we want to increase climate-related measures. We try to allocate as much funding as possible here, but I do not think we're going to reach the goal in next year's budget.

However, in parallel we are working on the next multi-year financial framework, in which we want to see a more ambitious goal on climate change.