Six EU member states have called for drastic reductions in EU spending across all policy areas they say must deliver savings worth hundreds of billions of euro, as they warned that the European Commission’s budget proposals ignore the financial situation of member states.

The move heaps renewed pressure on the already strained EU funding on the table to pay for farm schemes contained in the 2028-2034 CAP in criticising proposals that seek to cut ringfenced CAP funding by 24% as not going far enough.

Germany, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland have agreed that the EU budget should get the same cost-cutting treatment as national budgets across the EU.

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These net contributors to the budget countries claim that there is no alternative to major reform and that “excessive net imbalances” in what member states contribute and draw back down from the EU budget “must be corrected” as part of this reform.

Strategic priorities

“The [EU budget] will grow to address our strategic priorities, but it can only do so at a moderate pace,” a joint statement issued after a meeting on Thursday of the six countries’ leaders said.

“To arrive at an acceptable landing zone, the Commission's proposal of nearly €2tn needs to be reduced by several hundred billion euros in a balanced manner.

“All headings should contribute to such reductions.”

The six countries have voiced hope that an agreement can be struck on an “affordable and viable” EU budget before the end of this year.

Ireland currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union and must act as an honest broker when steering the budget talks.

The six cost-cutting member states’ statement on the next EU budget puts them on a collision course with the European Parliament, which has looked for the introduction of new EU-wide taxes to raise additional funds to keep funding for policies such as CAP at current levels in the next budget while upping the funds for programmes such as defence and security.