With 30 votes in favor (DISY, DIKO, EUROKO and Zacharias Koulias) and 20 MPs (AKEL, Movement of Ecologists - Environmentalists and Citizens' Alliance) to vote against, the State for 2014 was approved by the Plenary Session of the Parliament on 4 MPs from the EDEK Central Committee.
During the vote on the Budget, the Parliamentary Representative of AKEL, Nikos Katsouridis, stated that his party is voting against all the funds except for the Defense, while George Barnabas from the EDEK Central Committee stated that they abstain from all the provisions of the Budget. for the Defense and the National Guard.
The Budget, as formulated by the amendments that were voted in favor in Parliament, includes provisions for expenditures of 7.749.182.000 euros and revenues of 7.945.882.000 euros, along with the differences provided by the government amendments, which were approved unanimously and by a majority. incorporated in the Budget.
A total of 89 amendments were tabled before the Plenary Session of the legislature, of which 20 came from the executive and the rest from parties, either jointly or individually.
Some of the government amendments concerned the abolition or reduction of allowances, other additional expenditure on temporary or hourly staff, additional appropriations for completion of projects, incentives for scrapping fishing vessels, construction of artificial reefs, purchase of services, 170.000 additional credits maintenance and improvement of the Parliament building, as well as the purchase of printers and laptops, as well as for the granting of sponsorships of 25.000 euros, in total, for all animal protection and welfare organizations.
The party amendments mainly concerned commitment of funds, with the provision to be presented to the Parliamentary Committee before the relevant funds are released, however there have been cuts in some cases.
The total expenditures, including financial flows, expenditures for interest and reserves and payments of previous years, as originally submitted to Parliament, are budgeted for 2014 at € 7.740 million compared to € 9.812 million in 2013, showing a decrease of 21%.
According to the data submitted by the Minister of Finance, the Budget for 2014 is characterized by a drastic reduction of public expenditures.
As he pointed out, this is the first Budget submitted by the current Government, as well as the first Budget submitted to the Troika to assess whether it is in line with the budgetary objectives of the program and whether the minimum annual correction of the primary budget is achieved. fiscal balance.
Thus, the State Budget for 2014 and the Medium-Term Financial Framework 2014-2016 are budget discipline budgets, in which operating and non-productive expenditures have been reduced as much as possible, while appropriations for the completion of co-financed projects have been increased. state budget in view of the end of the 2007-2013 programming period.