A new EU budget proposal on Saturday. "It won't please everyone"

The stakes are high for Poland. Warsaw counts on approximately EUR 123 billion in the new budget. It is primarily about money for cohesion policy and agriculture, which Poland does not want to lose. We can't please everyone. However, we hope that everyone will find something for themselves in the compromise, said Thomas Byrne, Irish Minister of State for European Affairs, in the European Parliament, presenting the position of the Irish Presidency.

On one side, there is a group of countries led by Germany, which is demanding large cuts in the future budget, even hundreds of billions of euros. These countries want to reduce traditional spending and shift more money to defense, security and competitiveness. On the other side, there are 17 countries, including Poland, that oppose cuts in cohesion policy and agriculture.

The Irish presidency is trying to find a compromise not only on spending, but also on where to get the money for the EU budget. This is about new sources of money for Brussels. New own resources will play a key role (…) in parallel with the issue of budget size, Byrne emphasized.

Ireland sets conditions

The Irish Presidency sets three conditions. New sources of money must bring significant revenues, must obtain the unanimous consent of all countries and must be possible to introduce from 2028. Poland has already clearly set its red line here - it does not agree that ETS revenues will become a source of money for the EU budget.

In the last letter of the cohesion policy countries, it was emphasized that new taxes and fees must be fair and non-regressive, i.e. they must not burden poorer countries more than richer ones. This can be one of the most difficult points of negotiation. The Commission argues that new sources of money can reduce the pressure on national contributions. Some diplomats of EU member states, however, answer that this is not money from nowhere - in practice, it is money that will go to the EU budget instead of state budgets.

Will there be an agreement between EU leaders?