European Union: Budget Battle Begins

Text by: Aabla Jounaïdi Follow

European heads of state and government meet this Thursday in Brussels to talk about the European Union's “super budget”, which covers the period 2021-2027. With one member less, the United Kingdom, the game will be even more complicated between the States which want to reduce the airfoil and those which wish to preserve the level of expenditure.

Publicity

The proposal put forward by European Council President Charles Michel last week is far from reaching consensus. And then with the departure of the United Kingdom , the question of the EU's own resources arises even more insistently.

The proposal put forward by the President of the European Council Charles Michel, which was supposed to be the basis for the discussions, was greeted coldly by the President of the Parliament, who bet on a generous level of 1.3% of gross national income, the wealth produced each year by member countries. The President of the Council, meanwhile, plans a small%.

Enough to reactivate the usual divide between the club of states supporting a limited overall budget, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden at the head, and a larger group of states which want to continue to benefit from the traditional funds of the EU, including cohesion funds. Southern states like Italy, Portugal, Greece and the most recent partners of eastern Europe.

As for the Franco-German couple, they will have to tune their violins before the summit. Besides agriculture, France wants more ambition for European defense and space. Germany, meanwhile, does not intend to spend more, but it will not escape the debate on the discounts it enjoys as the main net contributor to the EU.

Ways will have to be found to increase the EU's own resources in order to make up for the departure from London, while funding new challenges such as the climate.

Parliament believes that there is still a need to find 230 billion euros to meet all the challenges.

► Read also: Brexit: the UK's “funny exit” from the EU

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Download the app

• European Union
• Brexit

On the same subject

Libya: European Union relaunches mission to monitor arms embargo

Crossroads of Europe

Europe, the leading continent against global warming?

Macron "impatient" at the lack of German response to European challenges