{"id":1172705,"date":"2026-08-27T18:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1172705\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T18:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:19:15","slug":"germany-and-frugal-allies-signal-budget-compromise-but-reject-further-eu-borrowing-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1172705\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany and \u2018frugal\u2019 allies signal budget compromise but reject further EU borrowing \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany<\/a> and five other northern European countries have signalled readiness to compromise in budget talks after meeting in Berlin<\/a>, but retained their opposition to further common EU<\/a> borrowing.<\/p>\n

Leaders of Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Sweden said they backed plans to conclude talks on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034 by year-end \u2013 but not at any price.<\/p>\n

Facing growing financial challenges at home, they say EU plans to increase its budget to nearly \u20ac2 trillion is a no-go for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not stingy, but allocations of the kind proposed by the commission simply do not fit the times,\u201d German chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a> said at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday, flanked by five other leaders. <\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent proposals foresee a rise of up to 60 per cent, something that is simply unaffordable at a time of budget consolidation in all member states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germany, the largest budget contributor, has led the cutback campaign. Last month, in Dublin, Merz demanded a \u20ac400 billion cut, which would still see spending up 27 per cent on the last MFF.<\/p>\n

Across-the-board cuts were \u201cessential\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Austrian chancellor Christian Stocker, another vocal critic of the European Commission<\/a>\u2019s plans, told journalists in Berlin: \u201cA better Europe comes from better decisions, not from more money and more officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Thursday\u2019s document brings on board five other EU leaders and reiterates many of the main Merz points, crucially it avoids any numbers. <\/p>\n

Instead the paper argues for cuts of \u201cseveral hundred billion euros in a balanced manner\u201d across all headings, opening the door to a face-saving compromise that shows the EU is still politically viable in an era of unprecedented global challenges.<\/p>\n

As part of Ireland\u2019s presidency of the Council of the European Union, Irish officials will present new proposals in advance of a crucial summit in October. Thursday\u2019s joint paper urged EU institutions to \u201cmake clear choices and reprioritise within the budget, just as we do at home\u201d.<\/p>\n

The six so-called \u201cfrugal\u201d EU leaders insisted that, on other fronts, they would not be a pushover in remaining talks. They demanded EU institutions \u201corganise their workload within the existing staff levels\u201d \u2013 rather than expect the 2,500 new jobs envisaged by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Opposition to \u201cfrugal\u201d EU member states comes from a loose alliance of around 16 member states, led by Spain and Italy. These member states are pushing for more flexible repayment terms for pandemic-era funding and, in the new MFF, a \u201cjoint borrowing for loan support\u201d.<\/p>\n

Such a permanent, common EU borrowing mechanism was, the six leaders said in Berlin, \u201cnot the solution to our budgetary challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany and five other northern European countries have signalled readiness to compromise in budget talks after meeting in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1172706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[7907,2574,365,2000,299,2557,1699,769,1945,1824,1477,812,1220],"class_list":["post-1172705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-austria","tag-berlin","tag-denmark","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european-commission","tag-european-union","tag-finland","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-netherlands","tag-sweden","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117168856337116753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1172706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}