EU budget: EPP leader Manfred Weber stands against Merz – dispute over the EU budget

Brussels. EPP leader Manfred Weber (CSU) and the other group leaders of the centrist parties in the European Parliament vehemently reject a new compromise proposal in the struggle for the new long-term EU budget - because the cuts are too big. “We would like to express our extreme dismay at the revised version of the negotiating framework,” wrote the leaders of the conservative EPP, the social democratic S&D, the liberal Renew and the Greens in a joint statement.

Weber is thus embarking on a confrontational course with Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), who also rejects the new proposal as unacceptable - albeit because of insufficient cuts to the first proposal from the EU Commission under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen. This planned to significantly increase the budget for the next seven-year period compared to the current budget.

In the struggle for the next long-term EU budget, the current Irish EU Council Presidency presented a new compromise on Saturday. The concept envisages cutting the budget for the years 2028 to 2034 by around 159 billion euros compared to the EU Commission's original proposal. Instead of just under 1.985 trillion euros, the so-called multi-annual financial framework should amount to 1.826 trillion euros.

We regret the significant cuts to the long-term EU budget proposed by the Irish Council Presidency, it said. It endangers “the Union’s ability to respond sustainably to the challenges ahead and to assert Europe’s role in an increasingly turbulent world.” The proposal cannot form a basis for the European Parliament's approval of the next long-term EU budget.

The parliamentary group leaders also criticize the distribution of the savings. According to the Irish proposal, particularly large cuts are to be made in competitiveness, research, defense and foreign and development policy. This weakens Europe's competitiveness and security and reduces its global influence, warn Weber and his counterparts. The federal government also criticizes the cuts in these areas.

Germany and other important net contributor countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria had called for the draft budget to be cut by several hundred billion euros. They belong to the group of states that ultimately pays more into the EU budget than they get out.

The EPP, which includes members of the CDU and CSU, the social democratic S&D, the liberal Renew, and the Greens together have 454 of the 720 seats in the European Parliament.

The Commission regrets the “significant reduction” in the overall volume, said a spokesman for the authority in Brussels. There is a risk that extensive cuts will undermine the jointly agreed key priorities, which is why we are not at all happy about it. “We need a budget that reflects Europe’s ambitions and enables us to deliver them.”