No deal on whether countries should pay more after UK leaves
European Union leaders were divided at a Brussels summit on Friday over calls to pay more to fill the huge hole which will be created in their budget when Britain leaves the bloc.
EU President Donald Tusk said the 27 leaders, meeting without Britain, wanted to spend more on defence, migration and security.
But there was no consensus on whether countries would each pay more into the joint budget to cover a post-Brexit gap of up to €15 billion (Dh67 billion) a year.
“Many are ready to contribute more to the post-2020 budget,” Tusk told a news conference.
“It is clear that the priorities are linked with the size of the budget, and in this context we need to address the revenue gap caused by Brexit”.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said 14 or 15 countries had agreed to step up their national contributions — which still leaves nearly half of the bloc undecided or opposed.
“This debate was less conflictual than I had expected,” said Juncker, who had earlier warned that countries needed to “pay more” to meet new priorities.
Germany, Spain and France are ready to pay more. But opposition is led by the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Austria, which are all “net contributors” — who pay more into the EU than they get out.
“What we don’t want is the weight of a constant increase in spending,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.
Merkel migrant plan
The EU’s current seven-year budget of almost €1 trillion (Dh4.5 trillion) runs out in 2020 and leaders need to negotiate a new multi-year spending plan starting in 2021.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plan to tie regional funding for poorer states to their willingness to take in refugees was less divisive than expected.
“This shouldn’t necessarily be viewed in a negative way, it could be viewed in a positive way” whereby states are rewarded for accepting asylum seekers, Merkel said.
There have also been suggestions that the funding should be made conditional on obeying the rule of law, seen as a shot across the bows to Poland and other Eastern European governments.
But Tusk said he had received “only positive reactions to this opinion. I was positively surprised.”