Germany threw its weight behind the European Commission’s plans for the next seven-year budget on Tuesday, vowing to block any deal that fails to include a performance-based funding principle.
The next EU budget, known as the multiannual financial framework (MFF), includes a proposal to merge agriculture and regional subsidies into centralised national plans negotiated between the Commission and EU capitals.
The plan has already drawn fierce opposition from MEPs, farmers, and regional governments, who see it as a “renationalisation” of EU funds. But Berlin, the bloc’s largest financial contributor, is standing firm.
“Germany will not agree to an MFF which does not involve modernisation,” said German ambassador to the EU Thomas Ossowski during a ministerial debate on Tuesday. “We need these new structures, and we support the reform proposed by the Commission.”
Ossowski also dismissed calls from poorer EU countries to carve up the proposed €234 billion European Competitiveness Fund along geographic lines to guarantee access regardless of project strength. The EU’s richest countries, including Germany and France, have instead pushed for a merit-based approach.
France, Germany on defensive over industrial fund access for smaller EU states
The EU’s richest countries are rebuffing a demand from the bloc’s smaller members to carve…
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If the merit-based ‘excellence principle’ of the Competitiveness Fund, which would favour richer EU countries, is called into question, then the subsidies dedicated to poorer countries will also be called into question, Ossowski said. “It’s as simple as that.” The Commission has already substantially slashed those subsidies.
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