Ministers for European affairs from EU countries laid bare their divisions during a public debate in Luxembourg on Tuesday 16 June on the topic of the EU’s next long-term budget. This discussion, the first in the General Affairs Council on the basis of the negotiating box unveiled last week by the Cyprus Presidency (see EUROPE 13886/1), will continue at the end of the week in Brussels around the table of Heads of State or Government.
As expected, the so-called frugal northern countries expressed shared dissatisfaction with the content of this nego box, which is based on a moderate reduction of around 2% in the overall volume of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028–2034.
German Deputy Minister for European Affairs Gunther Krichbaum said rather bluntly that for them, “this proposal is clearly unacceptable”. Referring to the “immense pressure” weighing on national budgets, the Christian Democrat called for “horizontal cuts”.
Overall, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria and Denmark defended a similar line, albeit with varying tones and degrees of firmness. Swedish minister Jessica Rosencrantz was the most outspoken, speaking to the press about her “disappointment” and “frustration” regarding the Cyprus Presidency’s draft.
Another net contributor to the EU budget, Belgium, joined the frugal club on the issue of the scale of national bills, through its minister Maxime Prévot. “Clearly, a 2% reduction is wholly insufficient for us. An increase in our European contribution [would risk having as] a corollary a further amplification of the structural budget deficit which, that very same Europe is, quite rightly, asking us to promptly reduce”, he argued.
The grievances also concerned the trade-offs over the targeting of the cuts. In the nego box, the savings have largely avoided Heading 1—which includes the common agricultural policy (CAP), Cohesion and fisheries policies—but not the European Competitiveness Fund, defence funding (Heading 2) or external action (Heading 3).
“If we had the opportunity today to reinvent the EU, to start again from scratch, we would not begin with the CAP, but with [funding for] competitiveness, AI or defence policy”, Gunther Krichbaum chided. “That does not mean agricultural policy is not important, but that priorities must be ranked accordingly”, he specified.
On the European Commission side, although he initially came to the aid of the Cyprus Presidency, European Commissioner for Budget Piotr Serafin then voiced criticisms of his own. “The European Commission cannot remain indifferent to a 4% cut in defence and competitiveness spending at a time when we very much need to do more together”, he pointed out.
Although they were among the loudest voices around the table, the frugal countries—or budget modernisers—nonetheless appeared isolated. Many countries in the so-called ‘Friends of Cohesion’ group did not, therefore, hide their satisfaction that these funds for less developed regions and for agriculture had been preserved, including Romania, Poland, Portugal, Greece, the Czech Republic, as well as Croatia, Slovakia and Bulgaria.
French minister Benjamin Haddad also welcomed the trade-offs in favour of “common agriculture and fisheries policies”, which are “fundamental” for “reducing our dependencies and for food sovereignty”. He nevertheless was of the opinion that in order to strike the balance “between financing our ambitions and keeping national contributions under control”, “progress on the issue of own resources” would be essential.
In that regard, no progress was observed on Tuesday, although European Council President António Costa believes it essential to expand own resources to finance the EU’s priorities.
By contrast, on the ‘financing’ side of the budgetary equation, several countries, including France, Italy and Poland, reiterated their call to abolish the “rebates” enjoyed by Germany, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. “You cannot, on the one hand, call for the MFF to be modernised and then on the other call for this archaic mechanism to be maintained”, said Benjamin Haddad somewhat sharply.
Overall, the talks appeared to have reached a deadlock. “We can discuss it here as much as we like, but in the end it will be the Heads of State or Government who meet until late into the night (...) to haggle—literally—and come to an agreement”, said Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. (Original version in French by Clément Solal)