Talks about the EU budget. Will "friends of cohesion" agree to radical cuts?

A common front in defense of cohesion

Ahead of today's negotiations on the next EU budget, Italy and Romania organized a meeting of 17 leaders of the "Friends of Cohesion" group. Its result is a common position in which countries demand an "ambitious, fair and balanced EU budget", capable of meeting new challenges without weakening existing EU policies.

In the second point of the declaration, the countries declare that they want to "protect the funds provided for in national and regional partnership plans, including for cohesion policy and agriculture, both in terms of financing and implementation." It's about money for investments, development of less developed regions and support for farmers.

These countries do not outright reject any cuts in the EU budget, but demand protection of the financing of cohesion and agriculture policy and rules that will enable the effective use of EU funds.

Even EUR 200 billion less?

"Friends of cohesion" emphasize that the budget must be large enough for the Union to finance both new priorities and existing tasks. They also demand fair cost sharing and oppose rebates for selected countries.

However, negotiations require finding a compromise, especially in the face of the tough stance of countries that contribute more to the EU budget than they take out of it.

The Irish presidency on Saturday proposed reducing the European Commission's original proposal by around 8 percent, or 141 billion euros. Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides allows even deeper cuts.

I don't think this is a solution we agree on. However, I think that in the end we will have to deal with a compromise and the scale of this reduction may increase slightly. Perhaps it will reach double-digit levels - 10, 11, or even 12 percent, he said.

Cuts of 12 percent would mean more than EUR 200 billion less compared to the European Commission's original proposal. Germany and other net payers have been demanding at least this much savings from the beginning. They believe that agricultural policy and money for poor regions should also be cut.