Increasing levels of debt carried by EU institutions a concern, says top auditorOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\nThe bulk of the EU\u2019s budget is financed by contributions from member states, with so-called \u201cnet contributors\u201d coughing up most of the money. Germany has been one of the most critical voices, dismissing the commission\u2019s initial price tag hours after it was presented last year as \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
The proposed cut is unlikely to be enough to appease the so-called \u201cfrugal\u201d member states. Speaking alongside Costa on Friday evening in advance of the announcement, Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten said a budget increase compared with the previous seven-year budget was \u201csimply not viable at a time when national budgets are already under pressure\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jetten said the budget must reflect concerns such as security, economic resilience and competitiveness. \u201cWe cannot just saddle our citizens with high costs unless we offer solutions to today\u2019s challenges,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Irish Farmers\u2019 Association president Francie Gorman described the budget, including the allocation for CAP, as \u201ca huge let down\u201d for Irish farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the original commission proposal, the EU CAP budget was cut by 22 per cent which would result in a 24 per cent cut to Irish payments,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Irish presidency proposal today has not improved this at all. It is huge let down for Irish and EU farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers will feel that EU is turning their back on farming and that the Irish Government is not delivering for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposal today is to allocate \u20ac293 billion to the EU CAP budget. EU farmers need \u20ac500 billion to build on-farm resilience, to encourage young people into our sector, to ensure food security and to enhance the sustainability of a very fragile sector,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Irish MEP Barry Andrews, who is chairman of the development committee at the European Parliament, described cuts to development co-operation as a \u201cserious error\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish presidency\u2019s negotiating box for the next EU budget proposes to cut Global Europe, the EU global development co-operation funding, by around 17 per cent,\u201d he said. \u201cThis would be a serious error, and one Europe will pay for with its own security and standing in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur neighbourhood is more unstable than at any point in a generation. Conflict, democratic backsliding and climate shocks are driving displacement and fragility on our borders and beyond. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, the withdrawal of US development funding has opened a gap that partners, and our competitors, are already moving to fill.<\/p>\n
\u201cReducing our own external action now would mean retreating at the moment our partners most need reliability and our own interests and long-term security are most exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrews said development co-operation \u201cis not charity\u201d but how Europe \u201cprevents crises rather than paying far more to manage them\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt underpins stability in our neighbourhood, supports partners who share our interests and values, and gives Europe a credible alternative to the offers of other powers. A smaller Global Europe means less influence, less leverage and less security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European Parliament has consistently called for an external action budget that matches the EU\u2019s ambitions and responsibilities. A cut of this size is incompatible with those ambitions, and with the commitments Member States have made on development, humanitarian response and global partnerships.\u201d \u2013 Additional reporting: Bloomberg\/Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union\u2019s next seven-year budget should avoid any further cuts to agriculture subsidies, but scale back ambitions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8846,5148,1712,61,60,43,73683],"class_list":["post-650640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-common-agricultural-policy-cap","tag-european-union","tag-european-commission","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-thomas-byrne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}