Siegfried Mureşan: "We categorically oppose the dilution of the Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy into a common fund”

The European Parliament categorically opposes the dilution of the Cohesion Policy (CP) and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) into a common fund, as the European Commission would like, said yesterday MEP Siegfried Mureşan, chief negotiator for the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework (MFF), during a press briefing he held for journalists in our country.

"I know that initially the European Commission wanted this, we drew their attention to the fact that we did not agree, but we received signals that the experts within the Commission continued to work on the same variant. My position as the European Parliament's chief negotiator for the MFF 2028-2034 is for maintaining the allocations for the CP and the CAP and I will not accept any reduction in funding for these priorities. Of course, the CP and the CAP need to contribute to the two priorities of the community bloc - increasing competitiveness and security and defense -, but this must be concrete on projects with a dual use, civilian and military. Under these conditions, it is obvious that an increase in the European Union budget is inevitable, but I believe that it must be moderate, because the financial situations of the member states do not allow too much room for increases in the allocation of funds”, stated Siegfried Mureşan.

The European Parliament's chief negotiator also said that he expects the trilogue with the European Commission and the EU Council to be difficult, after the Brussels Executive will present the MFF 2028-2034 proposal today, because there are different positions on the reimbursement by the community bloc of the loans of over 700 billion euros contracted to finance 50% of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. If some experts say that the member states must contribute to the rapid payment of these loans, which means a financial effort of over 25 billion euros annually, the European Parliament believes that there is a need for its own sources of financing for the EU budget, sources that would allow the Commission to reimburse the respective loans, but that would also bring in revenue for the sustainable, long-term construction of the community bloc's budget.

Siegfried Mureşan said: "We expect the European Commission to take into account the priorities of the European Parliament, priorities set out in the position paper adopted in May. If the Commission proposal is in flagrant contradiction with those of the European Parliament, we will reject the proposal, we will not consider it a basis for negotiations and we will ask the EU Executive to present a new draft on the MFF 2028-2034. The negotiations will be complicated, but we want to conclude them during 2026, so that in 2027 the beneficiaries can prepare for the absorption of funds that will effectively start on 1 January 2028. To achieve this, it is necessary that the representatives of the Member States in the Council of the EU do not delay the negotiations either.”

Although the co-rapporteur from the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats put forward the idea that the European Parliament wants a minimum EU budget for the period 2028-2034 of 1.24 trillion euros, the EPP Vice-President - Siegfried Mureşan - stated that he does not agree with entering into negotiations with the Commission and the Council on the basis of a minimum budget ceiling, but believes that it must be configured following the discussion with all the Member States and the institutions in Brussels, in order to identify the real financing needs, which they cannot cover from their own sources. However, the European Parliament's chief negotiator argues that the European budget for the period 2028-2034 needs to be higher than that for 2021-2027, especially since money must be allocated for competitiveness and for European security and defense, an area in which the creation of the European anti-aircraft shield is a priority.