The government stated today that the European Union’s long-term budget proposal is “just a starting point,” but assured that Portugal will fight to avoid cuts in cohesion funds.
“The presentation made by the Commission… We must regard it only as a beginning […], the final results will only be known in a year, a year and a half,” said the Minister of Economy and Territorial Cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida, speaking to journalists in Brussels, Belgium.
The official called for “caution” in analyzing the proposal for the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the period between 2028 and 2034, as it is “just a starting point.”
However, the Minister of Territorial Cohesion said it was the government’s “duty” “to do everything to ensure there are no fewer resources than in the past.”
Manuel Castro Almeida acknowledged that the configuration of the MFF regarding the funds “is quite different,” being more centralized in Brussels and the governments of the bloc’s countries, instead of granting as much autonomy to the regions.
Without yet knowing the MFF in detail, the Minister of Territorial Cohesion stated that Portugal wants to avoid cuts in European funds.
“We will fight for improvements and not cuts. It must be said that this budget presented is very ambitious, just do the math […], there are countries more interested in strengthening the Union’s budget and others interested in decreasing it. Portugal is on the side of those who want to see it strengthened,” he commented.
After several hours of negotiations among the European commissioners, the first proposal package for the next MFF 2028-2034 was presented in Brussels, with a total envelope of two trillion euros in authorizations (at current prices), based on national contributions (based on gross national income) of 1.26%.
In addition to these national contributions, the new own resources now proposed by the European Commission include a special tobacco consumption tax, a corporate resource for Europe (CORE), and taxes on electronic waste and e-commerce.
It is estimated that these new own resources and other elements of the own resources package presented today will generate revenues of approximately 58.5 billion euros per year (at current prices).
The current EU long-term budget (2021-2027) is 1.21 trillion euros (including about 800 billion euros at current prices from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which finances the RRPs), involving national contributions of 1.1%.
The proposal foresees a simplification of the EU long-term budget, which now includes 16 programs instead of 52, divided into 865 billion euros in national and regional partnership plans (which include structural agricultural and cohesion funds) and 410 billion euros for the new European Competitiveness Fund (including Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund).
Added to this are 200 billion euros for the EU’s external action, 49 billion euros for Erasmus+ & AgoraEU, and 292 billion euros for the remainder.
