Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU reached an agreement on the bloc's budget for next year late on Friday. EU lawmakers said they “secured additional funding, on top of the European Commission's draft budget, for some of the Parliament's priorities, such as humanitarian aid, the bloc's R&D program Horizon Europe, and the Erasmus exchange program”, US newspaper Politico reported.
“The EU budget for 2024 managed to also increase funds for Polish priorities such as assistance to countries accepting Ukrainian refugees, transport connections, including military ones with Ukraine, and humanitarian aid, both for Ukraine and the Middle East”, Poland's Ministry of Finance announced in a Saturday press release.
"This budget is beneficial for Poland," said Andrzej Sadoś, permanent representative of Poland to the European Union, in a comment for Polish state news agency PAP. "The agreed draft budget for 2024 is beneficial for Poland, it provides financing for projects that are important to us under the cohesion policy, the common agricultural policy, we also obtained financing under instruments supporting war refugees and sealing the borders," said Sadoś, who headed the Polish negotiating team.
"The EU budget's liabilities next year will amount to EUR 189.4 billion. Several months of work by our negotiating teams in Warsaw and Brussels have brought tangible benefits," he added.
In two weeks, a vote on the EU budget 2024 agreement will be held in Strasbourg.
(aj)
SOURCE: PAP, IAR, politico.com