BRUSSELS ― The EU should consider approving a three or four-year budget instead of trying to plan the bloc’s financial needs for seven years, the president of Cyprus told POLITICO. A three or four-year budget might be “easier” for some member countries to swallow, he suggested. An EU official close to the budget negotiations said the idea of a shorter timeframe was weird.
EU law allows a budget of “at least five years,” though every budget has been seven years since 1993. The odds of the budget being approved by the end of the year are increasingly slim, with an election in Spain in November, which polls indicate Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will lose to the center-right and far-right, potentially blowing out the timeline for consensus to 2027. Christodoulides also said he expected the budget to be cut by around a 10th compared to the budget proposed by the European Commission.
Last week, the Irish government proposed an 8% cut compared to the Commission’s proposal. "I think we may end up on 10% or 11%,” he said. "Double digits." Zoya Sheftalovich contributed reporting.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
