Germany and 5 EU countries submit a proposal to Brussels for the 2028-2034 budget

Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Finland have challenged Brussels on the new budget of the European Union, which will cover the period 2028-2034. According to the Financial Times, six countries stated that an agreement will not be reached on the seven-year budget, which is expected to reach approximately 2 trillion euros, unless "hundreds of billions" of euros of spending cuts are made.

In the letter seen by the Financial Times and signed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the leaders of the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Finland, it was stated that the EU's next budget should be "fundamentally reformed".

The letter also stated, "We must make choices."

The diplomat of one of the signatory countries also said regarding the budget negotiations, "An agreement will not be reached this year unless the budget is reduced by hundreds of billions of euros."

The message given by the six countries revealed the extent of the conflict between the EU's traditional spending items and its new security and economic priorities.

Six countries want the resources in the EU budget to be directed to different areas in the face of increasing security threats and economic competition.

In this context, increasing defense expenditures and providing support to European companies that have difficulty in the competition between China and the USA come to the fore. Germany and five other countries also advocate allocating more resources to support innovative companies.

Countries aim to cut funds for agriculture and underdeveloped regions, which make up approximately two-thirds of the EU budget. It is desired that some of these resources be transferred to new priorities such as defense, innovation and economic competition.

The 2028-2034 budget proposed by the European Commission is expected to reach approximately 2 trillion euros. However, there are serious disagreements among member countries about the areas to which resources will be allocated, rather than the size of the budget.

Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Finland contribute approximately 40 percent of total budget revenues. For this reason, the demands of the six countries carry significant weight in budget negotiations.

The six-nation ultimatum further highlighted the differences between member states, which want new priorities such as defense spending and economic competitiveness, as well as protection of agriculture and regional development funds.

According to the Financial Times, Ireland has been tasked with preparing a proposal that would compromise the demands of major contributing countries with member states that want agricultural subsidies and regional development funds to be preserved.