Ireland and Cyprus have appealed to the European Commission not to forget about island states when thinking about how to shake up the EU’s trillion-euro budget for funding schemes and subsidies.
Correspondence shows behind the scenes Government lobbying to protect EU funding for transport projects, which have helped finance works in the ports of Dublin, Cork and Rosslare.
The commission – the EU’s executive branch that proposes laws – has pitched for an expanded €2 trillion budget that would overhaul Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) payments to farmers and many other funding schemes.
The proposal is just the starting point for two years of negotiations to agree the size of the EU’s next seven-year budget, which will run from 2028 onwards.
In a joint June 26th letter, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien and his Cypriot equivalent, Alexis Vafeades, pressed the commission to protect money to improve islands’ transport links during the talks.
The letter to EU transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said the two island countries wanted to convey their “joint concerns” about funding for transport in the next EU budget.
The focus should not only be limited to linking up European road and train networks, the letter said. Rather, a “fair and equitable balance” needed to be struck that put enough money aside to build up the transport links of island nations.
The letter said there was a need to expand the capacity of Irish shipping ports in the aftermath of Britain’s exit from the bloc. Trade between Rosslare and other European ports had increased fourfold in the last three years, it noted.
“Support for the continued delivery of additional port capacity is essential to maintaining and strengthening trade and connectivity through Irish ports, to the benefit of the wider union.”
Irish projects secured more than €130 million in EU transport funding in recent years, a Department of Transport spokesman said. This included €73 million for works expanding the capacity of Dublin Port, a €38 million grant for infrastructure updates at the Port of Cork and €19 million for works in Rosslare Europort.
[ Dublin and Cork ports to receive more than €112m for infrastructure projectsOpens in new window ]
The two ministers said Ireland and Cyprus wanted to work with the commission to make sure the next EU budget addressed the “specific challenges” facing island countries. The letter was released to The Irish Times on foot of a Freedom of Information Act request.
“As maritime nations, we cannot overstate the crucial role of maritime transport in connecting Europe to global markets,” Mr O’Brien and his Cypriot counterpart said.
They called for all parts of the union to be “afforded appropriate consideration” in future plans for improving transport links.
Separately, officials from Ireland and other EU states who are net contributors to the union’s budget met in Vienna on Thursday to discuss the commission’s proposals.