Leaders face a ticking clock and sharp disagreements over cuts and new revenue ideas, making this week\u2019s Brussels meeting a decisive test for EU unity.<\/p>\n
The European leaders will gather in Brussels on Friday to discuss the bloc\u2019s budget for the coming years. The first compromise proposal regarding expenditures for 2028\u20132034 has drawn sharp criticism from both taxpayers and recipient countries.<\/p>\n
The EU budget is the cornerstone of funding for all Union policies: from supporting farmers to leveling living standards among the 27 countries, developing technologies, and student exchange programs. Under the European Commission\u2019s preliminary proposal for 2028\u20132034, the budget could amount to about 2 trillion euros.<\/p>\n
Wealthier countries pay into the budget more than they receive, while countries with fewer resources typically receive a larger share of funding. Still, as every seven years, the sides engage in fierce negotiations to reach a consensus for approving the budget.<\/p>\n
The first compromise prepared by the presidency of the member country Cyprus last week reduced the European Commission\u2019s proposal by about 2%, but this reduction did not satisfy all participants.<\/p>\n
The revised budget allocates a substantial portion of funds to supporting agriculture and regional cohesion, while reducing funding for science and innovation, which angers those countries that aim to compete with China and the United States.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands, one of the main payers, expressed dissatisfaction that the compromise focuses on traditional expenditures rather than on new challenges in defence and modernization.<\/p>\n
The proposal on the table right now is truly insufficient for the Netherlands<\/p>\n
\u2013 Rob Jetten<\/p>\n
Spain, though a small beneficiary, believes the budget is too small and spending on agriculture and cohesion should be adjusted to account for inflation.<\/p>\n
The proposal on the table now is even more inadequate than the one initially proposed by the European Commission, so we completely disagree with it.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/p>\n
Time Is Running Out<\/p>\n
Legally, the EU member governments need to reach an agreement on the 2028\u20132034 budget by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
However, due to planned elections in France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Greece, Estonia, Finland, and Slovakia next year, the agreement must be reached by the end of 2026 to avoid delays caused by the election campaign.<\/p>\n
To reduce contributions from major payers while preserving the beneficiaries\u2019 ambitions, leaders must agree on new revenue sources for the EU budget \u2013 sources that would not take money directly from national treasuries.<\/p>\n
Among the proposed options supported or rejected by different countries are the share of revenue from the sale of CO2 emission allowances and the share from the tax on imported goods produced in countries with less stringent climate policies than the EU.<\/p>\n
Other proposals include a tax on discarded electronic waste, a share from tobacco excise duties, and an annual one-off contribution from large companies that operate and sell in the EU.<\/p>\n
Also under discussion are taxes on excessive wealth, a digital services tax, taxation of online gaming, and profits from cryptoassets.<\/p>\n
Although on Friday leaders are unlikely to make a final decision on new revenue sources, they will voice their preferences so that the next Irish EU presidency could prepare a new compromise by October.<\/p>\n
Negotiations will continue, as the goal is to find a balance between the EU\u2019s financial capabilities and its ambitions, without derailing the budget approval process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaders face a ticking clock and sharp disagreements over cuts and new revenue ideas, making this week\u2019s Brussels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[13737,18,5214,13738,5185,144,13739],"class_list":["post-22328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-agriculture-support","tag-brussels","tag-brussels-summit","tag-cohesion-funding","tag-eu-budget-2028-2034","tag-news","tag-own-resources"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116776072728350738","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}