Key facts
- 17 EU countries oppose cuts to agriculture and regional payouts in the next budget.
- Italy, Spain, and Poland are among the 17 nations opposing the cuts.
- The countries want to preserve nearly €900 billion in spending for the CAP and Cohesion Policy.
- Germany leads a group of six countries advocating for cuts of several hundred billion euros.
- The initiative was coordinated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Romanian President Nicușor Dan.
- The European Commission proposed a €2 trillion budget for 2028-2034.
Seventeen European Union governments have publicly warned against proposed cuts to agriculture and regional development funding in the bloc's next seven-year budget, a move that sets up tensions with a rival camp led by Germany. The countries, including Italy, Spain, and Poland, signed a letter to Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin urging that nearly €900 billion in spending for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Cohesion Policy be preserved.
This initiative, coordinated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Romanian President Nicușor Dan, aims to counter Germany's push for budget reductions of several hundred billion euros. The "Friends of Cohesion" group warned that further cuts would weaken the budget and risk undermining public support for the European project.
The European Commission had previously proposed a budget of nearly €2 trillion for the 2028-2034 period, shifting funds from agriculture and regional payouts to new priorities like defense and competitiveness. The signatory countries also stated that any new EU-wide taxes, proposed to finance the budget, should be "genuine, fair, simple and non-regressive."
EU governments are seeking to reach an agreement by the end of the year, before national elections in France, Poland, and Italy could complicate negotiations. The group also called for delaying repayments of post-Covid debt and opposed budget discounts for wealthier nations.