Key facts
- EU Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin warned "frugal" countries against deep cuts to the bloc's proposed €2 trillion budget.
- Germany proposed reducing the next seven-year EU budget by €400 billion.
- Serafin stated that drastic cuts could disproportionately impact priorities like defense and competitiveness.
- He argued that a disunited approach to EU spending results in duplication and higher national costs.
- Frugal countries are seeking deeper overall cuts while prioritizing defense and competitiveness.
EU Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin has cautioned "frugal" member states against implementing drastic cuts to the bloc's proposed €2 trillion budget, warning that such measures could disproportionately harm their own priority areas.
Serafin's remarks followed Germany's proposal this week to reduce the next seven-year EU budget by €400 billion, a move supported by its allies who deemed the Cypriot presidency's proposed 2% cut insufficient. In a speech at the Commission's annual budget conference, Serafin stated that "a more frugal EU budget may not necessarily be modern," highlighting the risk that new, modern policy areas could be the first to be eliminated.
He further warned that a fragmented approach to EU spending often leads to duplication and fewer economies of scale, suggesting that the alternative to European spending is frequently national spending, which can result in a higher overall cost for individual governments. Frugal nations are reportedly pushing the incoming Irish Council presidency to pursue deeper overall budget reductions while safeguarding investments in defense and competitiveness.