Battlelines drawn on future of EU budgets
Ireland takes hard line on regional and farming funding
THE EU’s budget battle lines have been drawn, with a small, but ardent, group of countries firmly opposed to a post-Brexit spending boost.
The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden say the bloc’s €150billion a year budget should shrink once the UK leaves.
They want to cap the new long-term budget at 1pc of GDP, as it has been over the 2014-20 period, and forget about plugging a Brexit black hole of around €14 billion a year.
But erstwhile budget hawks Finland and Germany say they are willing to consider larger contributions to the budget.
And Ireland, now a member of the EU net payers club, is also willing to pay more, as long as traditional spending on agriculture and regional economies is maintained.
France, which has repeatedly fallen foul of EU spending rules, has not yet made clear whether it is willing to support a bigger budget, but French finance minister Bruno LeMaire said this week he wants to change the way spending is calculated and end rebates for richer countries.
The European Commission is seeking to raise the spending cap to between 1.1pc and 1.2pc of GDP. MEPs say they need at least 1.3pc of GDP to finance defence, education, innovation, climate change and other “new priorities”.
Whatever the outcome, it is becoming clear there will be cuts to agriculture and regional spending.
Climate-friendly
The question is how large those cuts are going to be, and what conditions will be put on the money that is left - for instance, climate-friendly requirements on direct farm payments.
There are also divisions over whether the EU should be able to raise its own taxes, with MEPs — and the Portuguese prime minister — coming out in favour of the EU having more “own resources”.
Ahead of an informal meeting on the new budget in Brussels last week.
The Taoiseach said that there was “a lot of support for Ireland’s position” on future spending.