After two days of summit in Brussels, the 27 members of the European Union did not manage to find a compromise this Friday on the future multiannual budget, a sign of deep divisions between the states, announced the president. from the European Council, Charles Michel.
No date has been put forward for a new summit on the new EU budget. “It was not possible to reach an agreement. We need more time, "said Charles Michel, who has been tasked by member states to conduct these negotiations.
"Differences" still "too great to reach an agreement"
Negotiations failed due to differences between the least spending countries (Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria) and a group of fifteen countries from the east and south, including Spain, Poland and Greece, which refuses cuts, especially in cohesion policy (aid to the least developed regions). A final compromise was rejected by all the leaders on Friday afternoon, acknowledging the failure of the negotiations, according to a source familiar with the matter.
“We came to a block against block situation. That's why it failed, ”said the source. German Chancellor Angela Merkel could only note "differences" still "too great to reach an agreement" on a budget of the order of one trillion euros. "It is democracy (...) It is a good tradition in democracy to discuss and debate", defended the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. She considered it essential that "the work continues with great vigor during the weeks and months to come".
"It is not the CAP that can pay for Brexit"
France, concerned about maintaining the CAP budget (common agricultural policy), and Germany, the two main contributors to the budget since the departure of the British, have tried, without success, to reconcile the positions of each other during the summit.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) must "not pay for Brexit" and its consequences on the EU budget, said French President Emmanuel Macron after an extraordinary two-day summit concluded in failure . "We have not sacrificed the common agricultural policy and I have said it very clearly: it is not the CAP that can pay for Brexit," said Emmanuel Macron when he left the summit, while he was expected Saturday at the Paris agricultural show.
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