Sofia Hosts a Conference on EC Budget

EU Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Günther Oettinger arrives in Sofia on 9^th of March for a high-level conference on the European Union's Multiannual Financial Framework until 2027. The key discussion for the EU's next 7-year budget is how to fill the multi-billion gap after Britain leaves the bloc and how to fund new defence, security and migration policies without cutting back on cohesion and agricultural policy.

There are several scenarios that the EC presented in mid-February on how to structure the Union's budget within the seven years. They envisage cutting money for cohesion policy and investing them as a priority in less developed regions such as Central and Eastern Europe.

If there are no changes to the cohesion policy and the costs are not cut, member states' contributions will have to increase to 1.1% of GDP. The task of the Bulgarian Presidency is to converge the positions between the countries that pay more into the budget and those which spend more.

Vladislav Goranov, Bulgaria’s Minister of Finance says that the European budget should look for added value. For example, funding for research and development, defence and migration policies should also be done through the European budget as the benefits are at a pan-European level. It is necessary to ensure that poorer regions can also get some minimum standards in public service levels so that potentially equal opportunities are provided to all EU citizens, he said.

We need to establish how ambitious we want to be, to ensure a balance between the new policies - security and migration, innovation and traditional policies that have proven their effectiveness and made the EU and have contributed to what it is, Ekaterina Zaharieva, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs said.

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