Bulgaria's Economic and Social Council (ESC) opposes a proposal by Ireland, which holds the EU Council presidency, to cut the bloc's 2028–2034 budget by 8%. The council says so in a declaration. It wants money for cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to stay in place, and it wants separate support for regions along the EU's eastern border, including the Black Sea region.
This report follows our earlier story on 17 EU countries, Bulgaria among them, that asked for farm and cohesion funds to stay untouched in the bloc's next long-term budget.
Employers' groups, trade unions and civil society organisations agreed the declaration by consensus. The ESC says an 8% cut puts at risk the EU's ability to respond steadily and adequately to growing economic, social and geopolitical challenges.
Ireland, the current rotating chair of the EU Council, tabled the proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework, the bloc's long-term budget, last week, BTA reported. It is about €140bn lower than the European Commission's first version, which was close to €1.985 trillion. Most of the cuts hit competitiveness and development.
The ESC rejects the 13% cut to the European Competitiveness Fund, the nearly 10% cut to Horizon Europe and the 14% cut to the Connecting Europe Facility. The council says the cut to the Facility could threaten economic security, because critical infrastructure is becoming more and more vulnerable.
The council says cohesion and the CAP should remain the base of EU funding, and that rural development should have its own budget. If there are cuts anyway, it says, they should be targeted and proportionate, not across the board.
The ESC wants the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to stay a separate fund, with money for jobs, social inclusion and skills kept. It also urges faster talks on the budget.
The council also objects to the new EU revenue sources proposed from the EU Emissions Trading System and from tobacco excise duties. The ESC says they would hit smaller member states, Bulgaria among them, disproportionately hard.
The council wants the N+3 rule for spending EU money to stay, instead of the proposed N+1.
The ESC backs including the Social Climate Plan, and says member states should decide themselves whether to move money from the Social Climate Fund into national and regional partnership plans. It wants a review of the second emissions trading system (ETS2) and a delay in its start until 2030 at the earliest, as well as a delay to the requirements of the Methane Emissions Regulation.
The ESC says regions along the eastern border need separate support because of the unstable geopolitical situation.
The Irish compromise satisfies neither Germany and the countries that want deep cuts, nor France and the countries that press for an "ambitious" budget. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz favours big cuts, while Paris wants substantial new own revenue for the EU budget. On Wednesday the Élysée Palace called that revenue an "absolutely necessary condition" for a deal.