17 EU Leaders Defy Budget Cuts, Demand Farm Funding Be Protected
In a joint letter to Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, the leaders demanded that agriculture be made a priority as negotiations on the next EU budget get under way.
The initiative was spearheaded by Romanian President Nicusor Dan and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Leaders from Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia signed on, as did Greek Cypriot administrations.
The signatories acknowledged the pressures facing the bloc but insisted that meeting them must not come at the expense of treaty-based policies. Those policies, the letter said, remain the "backbone" of European integration and help the EU tackle the new challenges themselves.
"Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy are long-standing policies, but their objectives are as relevant as ever," the letter noted.
"We therefore believe that the overall funding for Cohesion Policy and the CAP must be preserved in the next MFF (Multiannual Financial Framework)," the letter added.
The leaders warned that deeper reductions would fail to modernize the EU budget and would "only weaken" it, while also threatening public backing for the European project.
They also signaled openness to revised proposals from the European Commission. "We will carefully consider the adjustments to the proposals that the Commission has committed to present," the letter added.
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