Bulgaria is ready to increase its contribution to the European Union’s budget. This is understood by the words of Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov before a meeting for the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework in NDK, in which will take part also the Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Günter Oettinger.
“For us all options to overcome the new challenges after Brexit are open. We share the view that for maintaining the cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy, there may be an increase in contributions and we are ready to support a similar solution”, the minister said at the meeting.
According to his words, the reduction of the cohesion policy and its focus on the poorest regions will reduce the interest of large countries and pose a risk to the policy itself.
“We have the challenge of financing more things with fewer resources and addressing this problem can be achieved on the one hand, with better prioritization, but it will probably be necessary to increase the contributions of Member States”, he added.
So far, the countries in the EU are divided on this issue. In early February, information appeared that Bulgaria and seven other countries in the eastern part of the continent agreed to increase their contributions to the Union’s multiannual budget up to 1.1% after Britain’s exit.
Later, however, the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance denounced the information. In late February, Prime Minister Bojko Borisov said it was more advantageous for Bulgaria to increase the contribution to the EU budget.
Austria has already opposed the proposal and insisted on cutting some programmes, especially payments to Eastern European countries. The leaders of the Baltic States supported the idea of paying more for the bloc’s budget after 2020 to fill the hole. The European Commission is expected to make a formal proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework in May.
The EU budget for 2018 is set at €160.1 billion in commitment appropriations. This represents an increase of 0.2 percent compared to the EU budget for 2017, including the change over the last few months.
The Council stated that the EU budget for 2018 should be primarily orineted towards growth, jobs, security and the management of migration flows, but also wants to leave sufficient resources to respond to unforeseen needs.
The impact of EU funds does not stop to the external borders of the Union – significant benefits go to African, Caribbean and Pacific states under the European Development Fund.
