The two-day EU summit, where EU leaders first sought to reach a compromise on the 2021-2027 EU budget, ended without a deal.
Finally, the European Commission’s proposal for a budget of 1.069 percent of EU gross national income (GNI) was on the table, which was not satisfactory to member states.
“We need more time,” said European Council President Charles Michel at the end of the summit, after conducting negotiations on the basis of his compromise proposal presented a week ago. He stressed that technically everything is ready and that these are political issues now.
Negotiations are very difficult, Michel said, especially because of Brexit, which, with one of the largest net contributors leaving, creates a hole in the Union budget worth between EUR 60 billion and EUR 75 billion in next seven years.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, however – when asked what went wrong – replied that this is a democracy and that the Union has 27 members with 27 interests. “Sometimes things take time to mature. We are not on our destination yet, but we are on the right track,” she said.
Michel didn’t want to talk about when the leaders will try again. He said he would first take the time for informal consultations in the coming weeks. He believes an agreement can be reached with a further respectful dialogue.
The European Commission then defrauded the original Michel compromise proposal in a technical proposal that was most recently on the negotiating table, which set the budget at 1,074 percent of GNI. But the countries obviously remained too far apart.
The 17 “friendly member states” opposed the “frugal four” – Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria, all insisting at 1 percent of GNI – with the offer of 1.3 percent of GNI, as the European Parliament wants it, too.
Source: STA, svet24.si
Photo: Pixabay