The leaders of 17 EU member states, including Poland, called on Thursday for an ambitious and fair EU budget for 2028–2034, opposing further spending cuts and urging the protection of funding for cohesion policy and agriculture.
The representatives of countries belonging to the so-called Friends of Cohesion Group met in Brussels ahead of an EU summit. The meeting was organised by Italy and Romania, with Poland among the participating countries.
Following the meeting, the leaders adopted a joint statement setting out four key demands for the EU’s next long-term budget.
The signatories noted that, following two successive reductions, the proposed budget had fallen to 1.02 percent of the EU’s gross national income (GNI), excluding the funds required to repay the debt incurred to finance the EU recovery fund.
The latest proposal put forward by the Irish presidency of the Council of the European Union envisages a EUR 141 billion reduction in spending, equivalent to approximately 8 percent compared with the European Commission’s original proposal.
According to the statement, the next budget must provide sufficient funding to address both the new challenges facing the bloc and its established priorities, particularly cohesion and agricultural policies.
They called for adequate funding to be maintained for both policy areas, stressing that this must be accompanied by rules that safeguard their specific objectives and enable member states and regions to make effective use of the available resources.
Regarding the fair distribution of the costs of financing the EU budget, the leaders expressed their willingness to discuss new sources of EU revenue. However, they stressed that any new system should not place an excessive financial burden on any individual member state.
The 17 countries also called for the scrapping of budget rebates, which allow certain member states to contribute less to the EU budget than they would under the standard rules for calculating national contributions.
The joint statement added that preferential adjustments to contributions based on gross national income have no place in a modern and fair EU budget.
The leaders pledged to work together to advance these four demands in the negotiations ahead.
The EU’s next long-term budget for 2028–2034 is one of the main items on the agenda of the summit that began in Brussels on Thursday. Member states remain divided over the overall size of the budget. While some are calling for spending cuts, others, including Poland, oppose reductions, arguing that the EU needs additional resources to achieve its objectives. (PAP)
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