Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa is listened to by members of the Friends of Cohesion group, gathered in Beja on February 1, 2020. - Jose Manuel Vidal / EFE / SIPA

Meeting in Beja, Portugal, 15 countries in southern, central and eastern Europe said at the Friends of Cohesion summit on Saturday the need to quickly reach an agreement on the next European budget in the aftermath of Brexit. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain signed the final communiqué of the summit.

Also present, Croatia preferred to keep its neutrality as the current President of the Council of the European Union while Italy was not among the signatories.

"More than ever, the cohesion of the European Union must be affirmed"

"It is urgent to reach an agreement on the next European budget and the member states meeting today have expressed their firm will to conclude a final agreement on February 20," announced Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa during a press conference following discussions. "More than ever, we must affirm the cohesion of the European Union when it is now more fragile with the exit from the United Kingdom," he added.

This “Friends of Cohesion” summit took place three weeks before an exceptional summit convened by the President of the European Council Charles Michel in an attempt to endorse the EU budget for the period 2021-2027. And the 17 countries that have met in Portugal fear that the next agreement will lead to major budget cuts, accentuated by the end of the contribution of the United Kingdom, which officially left the European Union on Friday.

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