After months of tough negotiations, the European Parliament Tuesday approved the EUs long-term budget for 2014-2020 with 537 votes to 126. The overall EU budget for the next seven years is 960 billion euro in commitments and 908 billion euro in payments. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, commented that "todays approval by the European Parliament of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 is an extremely important vote. Thanks to the European Parliaments approval today EU funds can flow, on time, starting from 1 January 2014." On his part, the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said "this is a great day for Europe." "The European Union will invest almost 1 trillion euros in growth and jobs between 2014 and 2020. The EU's budget is modest in size compared to national wealth," he noted in statement. The Council which represents the 28 EU governments is expected to give its green light to the long-term budget on 2 December. (end) nk.mt KUNA 191606 Nov 13NNNN