Hopes for an agreement during Ireland’s presidency on the EU’s multi-annual framework, the union’s seven-year budget, were thrown into disarray on Tuesday 29 September by a letter signed by the leaders of Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Finland.
According to the Financial Times, the letter calls for a fundamental reform of the EU budget, and stresses the need to make choices in order to reduce spending by hundreds of billions of euros.
The signatories of the letter are concerned about economic and security challenges and want to shift EU resources towards defence and innovation and reduce funding for farmers and poorer regions. They have threatened to withhold agreement on the budget unless the cuts and changes in spending are secured.
On the other side of the table are countries, including Spain and Italy, which want an increase in spending as well as more money for farmers and poorer regions.
The EU budget for 2028-2034 must be agreed by all 27 member states. Speaking at the Irish Farmers Journal stand at the National Ploughing Championships, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there is a big push to get a deal done on the budget this year ahead of a number of national elections across the EU next year. The fear is that those elections will make it very difficult to achieve agreement on a budget in 2027.
If, as seems to be the case, the distance between both sides of the debate is widening, then the chances of a budget being agreed in the coming months have been considerably reduced.
SHARING OPTIONS