Ireland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, put forward a new negotiating document that would trim the seven-year budget by 8%, or 141 billion euros, from the European Commission’s original draft. The total would come to EUR 1.62 trillion, against the Commission’s 1.76 trillion, in constant 2025 prices.
The deepest savings fall on competitiveness, security and the bloc’s external action.
The presidency left national envelopes, the money earmarked for each member state for areas such as cohesion policy and agriculture, at the level set by the previous Cypriot presidency.
“The key issue for Poland concerns the national envelopes, which the Irish presidency decided to keep at their existing level. That is, of course, good news for us”, Niemczycki said.
He argued that the EU can only pursue ambitious goals if it has a sufficiently large budget.
The proposal also addresses new sources of EU revenue, including income from the carbon emissions trading system (ETS), which some member states could phase in gradually.
“We see some understanding that another solution has to be found on the ETS as an own resource. But we still have to work on it”, Niemczycki said.
EU leaders are due to discuss the budget at a summit in Brussels on October 15-16. The Irish presidency hopes to secure a deal before the end of the year.
(jh)
Source: PAP