The 17 EU member states participating in the Friends of Cohesion Summit in Beja, Portugal, issued a Joint Declaration on maintaining the level of financing of the Cohesion Policy in the European Union’s new long-term budget. Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis represented the Greek Prime Minister at the Summit, which was also attended by the Director of the European Affairs Office of the Prime Minister's General Secretariat, Dimitris Mitropoulos.
In his address, Mr. Varvitsiotis stressed that the negotiations on the new multiannual financial framework are characterised by a number of paradoxes.
“The first paradox,” he said, “is that we are asking the European Commission to do more with less money. The new Commission’s wide range of priorities cannot be funded by the smaller budget resulting from the Brexit and the proposed low contributions of the member states,” he noted.
“Second, while we are asking European citizens to embrace the EU, at the same time we are sending a message that we don’t hear their voice, given that we are not bearing in mind the European Parliament’s proposal on the MFF,” he observed, pointing out that the European Parliament has set the goal of 1.3% of the GNI of the EU-27, the Commission is maintaining 1.16%, and the proposal from the latest Presidency was for an even smaller budget on the order of 1.06% of the GNI of the EU-27.
“The third paradox,” Mr. Varvitsiotis underscored, “has to do with the discrimination between old and new policies. The Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy, which some member states see as old policies, have been associated in European citizens’ minds with the European Union and the improvement of their standard of living.” The Alternate Minister pointed to the need to maintain these policies at least at their current levels, underscoring that the convergence of the member-state economies is one of the EU’s key and fundamental goals, “a goal,” he stressed, “that has yet to be achieved.”
“The fourth paradox,” he noted, “has to do with the adoption of new policies on the future of the EU, such as those on climate change, migration, security and defence, and digitisation, which must be financed adequately while the budget is shrinking rather than increasing.”
Mr. Varvitsiotis added that the EU needs an ambitious budget to meet all of these new needs and emerging challenges, in order to achieve the goals of the new strategic agenda.
Finally, he pointed to the need for member-state solidarity on issues beyond cohesion, such as migration, which is one of the major current challenges, especially for Greece, stressing that solidarity cannot and must not be selective.
February 2, 2020