David Sassoli said the EU parliament was pleased with the EU recovery package but would improve on the budget.
ADVERTISEMENTEuropean Parliament President David Sassoli said the EU parliament will make "certain corrections" to the budget during the plenary session set for Thursday.
EU Council leaders reached a landmark €1.82 trillion budget and COVID-19 recovery package early Tuesday morning.
The package includes jointly borrowing €750 billion that will be used as a recovery fund shared in the form of grants and loans.
Sassoli commended the deal met by EU leaders, stating that months ago talking about "shared debt" was a "taboo" subject.
Now the deal will have to pass the scrutiny of the European Parliament, which will convene a special plenary session.
Sassoli said the European parliament was "satisfied" with the resources included in the recovery package but added that the institution planned to make "certain corrections" to the trillion-euro, seven-year budget.
"I am convinced that we will have a positive response. I trust the European institutions. I trust that parliament will be able to explain the need for certain changes," Sassoli said, according to a live translation of his press conference.
He said that the agreement reached by the European Council was an important one but that the parliament wanted to improve upon it. He said parliament was "pleased with the result" that was achieved.
He said that the COVID-19 pandemic was also an "opportunity to launch other priorities" stating that countries needed to have similar emissions, for one.
Sassoli mentioned a few programs that he was hoping to discuss in the budget including migration explaining that cuts to migration "would make our response weaker" whereas the topic was supposed to be a priority of the German council presidency.
He also mentioned cuts to the EU's student exchange programme, Erasmus, calling cuts to research and young people's opportunities "unjustified".
"On the budget, the Council doesn't have the last word," Sassoli explained, referring to the parliament's budgetary responsibility within European institutions.