As regards the next European budget, “major work remains to be done. That is an understatement!”, Irish Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said on Tuesday 14 July, at the General Affairs Council table. At this first meeting in this format under the Irish Presidency, the last before the summer break, the conservative from the Fianna Fáil party set out his method for moving towards a compromise on the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
“In September, I will use the [two] General Affairs Council meetings, scheduled in Dublin and then Brussels, to gather from each of you your latest comments and reactions regarding the compromise that our Presidency will present with to the European Council in October,” he said. And Thomas Byrne reiterated that concluding an agreement by the end of the year is “essential to ensure that EU funding reaches its beneficiaries, without interruption from January 2028 onwards (...)”.
Earlier in the morning, however, Polish Secretary of State Ignacy Niemczycki had struck a different tone: “No one is absolutely attached to that deadline. If an agreement is reached at the beginning of next year, that will also be acceptable. For us, the quality of the agreement is more important than the date on which it is concluded.”
For his part, German Deputy Minister Gunther Krichbaum considered it “important” to meet that deadline, while elections will be held in several Member States in 2027 (see EUROPE 13889/2). The discussions “should, as far as possible, be concluded during the current half-year”, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Tasos Chatzivasileiou qualified in turn.
On substance, Thomas Byrne identified three “key elements” of divergence to be resolved on the future long-term budget: “its volume, the new own resources and the balance between the different spending priorities”.
On the question of volume, asked about recent leaks referring to a desire by the German government to cut €400 billion from the MFF (see EUROPE 13899/26), Gunther Krichbaum did not wish “either to confirm or deny” Germany’s precise position on the scale of the desired reduction, which is “currently under discussion in Berlin”.
As regards the own resources component, European Commissioner for Budget Piotr Serafin appeared to confirm that the negotiation was limited to the five options proposed by the Commission and the three ideas suggested by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13908/18).
The previous day, representatives of the now 17 countries in the ‘Friends of Cohesion’ club - which Cyprus has joined, as it no longer holds the rotating Presidency of the EU Council - had once again met to coordinate their positions, on Latvia’s initiative.
Anticipating laborious negotiations, Thomas Byrne “urged everyone (...), as well as [his] teams, to make use of the coming months to determine, with pragmatism and in a spirit of collegiality, the points on which concessions can be made”. “Without that, a final agreement will not be possible,” the Irish minister warned. (Original version in French by Clément Solal)