Northern Europe considers insufficient cut in the EU budget

Ocountries in the north of the European Union considered that the 8% cut in the European budget, proposed today by the rotating presidency, which is currently being held by Ireland, was insufficient and asked to go “beyond” to achieve a “more realistic” proposal.

“ The Netherlands cannot accept this proposal. At this rate, there will be no agreement before the end of the year. Along with others Member States, the Netherlands want to go much further so that the proposal recovers modern, realistic and acceptable dimensions,” Dutch finance minister Eelco Heinen said on his social networks.

The Irish proposal reduces the common accounts, as requested by the fruit countries — Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Finland — but concentrates the cuts precisely on areas that these partners want to prioritize, such as security and defence, competitiveness, innovation and combating irregular migration, to the detriment of traditional agricultural fund headings.

Last week, this group warned that it would not support a new EU budget if the current proposal did not suffer cuts of “several hundreds of billions of euros”.

Swedish Minister for European Affairs, Jessica Rosencrantz, spoke along the same lines and described as “irrational” the Irish proposal which, in its assessment, does not prepare the Community block for the 21st century.

“The new proposal is unreasonable. The overall volume should be significantly reduced. The figures still represent an extremely unsustainable increase and therefore we are far from an agreement. Sweden will continue to fight for a better budget, not for a bigger one,” Rosencrantz said.

On the other hand, diplomatic sources of this group of countries have told Efe that these figures are “a disappointment” and that they do not even “approach to a point of agreement”, while they have considered that “increasing spending on the current situation is unacceptable and, from a financial point of view, totally unviable”.

“ The proposal does not prepare the EU for the 21st century. This negotiation package is not a basis for an agreement”, they added.

The Irish presidency of the EU Council today proposed 8% cuts in the European Commission's proposal for a multiannual budget for 2028 to 2034, for a total of €1.62 billion, without substantially moving cohesion and agriculture.

This is a proposal equivalent to 1.16% of the Gross National Income (GNI) of the European Union, a total of €1.62 billion at constant prices of 2025 compared to the proposal of the EU executive of €1.76 billion (and €1.83 billion compared to €1.98 billion at current prices).

Ireland will submit its proposal first to the EU Ministers for European Affairs on Tuesday, when a first approach will take place, and then at the summit of Heads of State and Government on 15 and 16 October, to try to overcome the great divergence that still persists with a view to reaching an agreement in December.