During the decisive stage of negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the period 2028–2034, heads of state and government of 17 member states, including Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, insist on strengthening and increasing the significance of Cohesion Policy.
These leaders emphasize that the next MFF must enable Europe to utilize existing opportunities while responding to growing challenges such as security and defense, competitiveness, connectivity, energy security, and sustainability.
Recognizing the importance of new European policies, the leaders of these countries stress that new priorities 'should not come at the expense of policies enshrined in Treaties, which remain the foundation of European integration and themselves contribute to solving these new problems.'
They refer to long-term policies—Cohesion Policy and Common Agricultural Policy—asserting that 'their goals remain as relevant as ever.'
The heads of state and government remind that these policies promote closer ties between member states and regions, strengthen the Single Market, and support rural and less developed areas. They also contribute to Europe's competitiveness and food security, providing tangible support to millions of European citizens and demonstrating the added value of common European spending. Both policies have repeatedly adapted to new economic and social realities and bring direct and indirect benefits to the economies of all countries.
European Union
A letter available to RTP Antena 1 states: 'We believe that global financing for Cohesion Policy and CAP should be maintained in the next MFF. These policies are already facing real cuts within the Commission's proposal, despite the overall increase in the scale of the MFF. Their further reduction will not modernize the EU budget; it will only weaken it and risk undermining public support for the European project.'
Leaders from Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Romania, Cyprus, Czechia, Greece, Latvia, Malta, and Slovakia declare their readiness to work constructively on an agreement on new own resources for the European Union to reduce the burden on national budgets.
They acknowledge that 'Europe's new priorities require adequate additional resources, and funding for agriculture and cohesion must be maintained.'
The leaders are prepared to implement a more gradual repayment of NextGenerationEU—which implies a review of the debt taken to counteract the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic—and to use new, limited, and targeted European debt instruments for clearly defined strategic priorities.
These 17 member states believe that 'the current rebate system should not be present in the next Multiannual Financial Framework.' It is worth noting that these rebates are budgetary correction mechanisms functioning as 'discounts' on the financial contribution that some member states make to the European budget. These discounts are granted to countries called 'net contributors'—those who contribute more money to the EU treasury than they receive back through community funds.
However, the heads of state and government who signed this letter admit that 'the rebates were intended to correct the excessive burden in contributions of certain member states.' But they write that 'the circumstances that originally justified such adjustments have fundamentally changed. When assessing national contributions, not only their absolute value but also the different levels of prosperity of the member states and the relative efforts required from each of them should be taken into account.'
The Irish Presidency is due to present the 'negobox'—a negotiating proposal for the next general budget—next week. On Tuesday, heavyweight budgetary players Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, and Sweden sent their own letter to Dublin advocating for cuts of 'hundreds of millions of euros.'
This week, the energy ministers of Portugal, Spain, and Luxembourg wrote to the European Commission requesting the setting of renewable energy targets by 2040.
The governments of these three countries stated in the letter to the European Commissioner for Energy: 'Due to geopolitical uncertainty and as shown by the consequences of the Strait of Hormuz blockade, we need to act quickly to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.'
