{"id":414801,"date":"2025-09-11T03:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414801\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T03:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:32:12","slug":"eus-richest-countries-hold-secret-meeting-in-vienna-as-budget-talks-get-tribal-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414801\/","title":{"rendered":"EU\u2019s richest countries hold secret meeting in Vienna as budget talks get tribal \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seasoned budget negotiators argue that key decisions are taken in these cozy meetings. Last March, net payers agreed to earmark \u20ac175 billion for the Horizon research program \u2014 which was confirmed by the Commission shortly after \u2014\u00a0during an informal gathering in Helsinki, according to the EU diplomat. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where the Commission stands<\/strong><\/p>\n

Waiting on the sidelines, the Commission will lobby national governments to stay close to its original proposal during the negotiations with the Council and the Parliament.<\/p>\n

In the coming months, Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin \u2014\u00a0a former Polish ambassador to the EU who knows the Council like the back of his hand \u2014\u00a0will broker talks between the net payers and the Friends of Cohesion.<\/p>\n

Caught between the two warring tribes, the commissioner \u201ccan see all the cards on the table,\u201d a Commission official said.<\/p>\n

A seasoned budget negotiator, Lewandowski said the commissioner must strive to \u201cdivide et impera [divide and conquer] as opposed to consolidating blocs\u201d in the Council.<\/p>\n

\"\"Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin will broker talks between the net payers and the Friends of Cohesion. | Thierry Monasse\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Lewandowski\u2019s advice to Serafin,\u00a0who served as his aide during his stint as commissioner,\u00a0is to \u201capproach countries one by one \u2026 rather than confronting two big groups,\u201d as that weakens the power of member countries vis-\u00e0-vis the Commission.<\/p>\n

With tough and dramatic shouting matches around the corner, there are only a few crucial certainties for the negotiators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis [Commission] proposal won\u2019t be what we\u2019re going to agree on at the end, everyone will have to move \u2026. [But] there has always been a deal, and we are going to manage a deal this time as well,\u201d Austria’s Imhof said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seasoned budget negotiators argue that key decisions are taken in these cozy meetings. Last March, net payers agreed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[7907,1194,2825,2000,12921,299,5187,1699,36,1824,2348,2190,2199,24479,11665,809,52252,770,2822,104,812,1781],"class_list":{"0":"post-414801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-austria","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-debt","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-eu-budget","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-france","17":"tag-germany","18":"tag-history","19":"tag-hungary","20":"tag-italy","21":"tag-malta","22":"tag-meps","23":"tag-negotiations","24":"tag-piotr-serafin","25":"tag-poland","26":"tag-regions-cohesion","27":"tag-spain","28":"tag-sweden","29":"tag-viktor-orban"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115183560070508344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414801","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=414801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}