No. A sharp no. The European Union budget project for 2021-2027 published last week by the President of the European Council, Charles, Michel, already has a Spanish response. The proposal, as pointed out this Monday by the Spanish Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, is "insufficient", the distribution is "unfair" and does not recognize the role of agriculture as an element of cohesion and as a fundamental element for the ecological transition " .
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The Spanish minister expressed herself well before the meeting of the Council of Ministers of General Affairs of the EU, the first meeting of the week in which the budget project was analyzed. The ministerial meeting has tried to pave the ground before the extraordinary European summit convened for this Thursday, February 20. But the first score has only served to verify the enormous differences that still exist between the 27 Member States.
"If everyone is upset, perhaps the proposal is a good compromise," said European Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn, following the conclusion of the EU Council of Ministers. Hahn believes that Michel's project, which foresees an expenditure of 1.094 billion euros over the next september, is "a good starting point."
The optimism of the Commission, however, is not shared by almost any capital. Net contributory partners (such as Germany and the Netherlands) consider that the expenditure ceiling set by Michel (equivalent to 1,074% of the EU Gross National Income) is too high. These countries insist that after the exit of the United Kingdom (last January 31) there has been a budget hole (of 75,000 million in the next seven years) that forces to adjust the accounts drastically downwards.
Net recipients, including Spain, consider it too low and with unacceptable cuts in cohesion policy (12% less than in the 2014-2020 framework) and agriculture (14% less over the same period).
The European Parliament, which must approve the final agreement, also does not accept the figures raised, considering them very far from its initial request, which aspired to spend 1.32 billion, equivalent to 1.30% of the GNI. Michel, however, has offered the possibility of introducing new sources of income at the community level (such as a fee on plastic) that could help to please Parliament.
More difficult will be to achieve the unanimity of the 27 member states, which reach Thursday's summit ready to haggle to the last cent. As a pressure measure, Michel has not set a time or day for the summit to end. But the tactic has not impressed the diplomatic representatives of governments too much and many of them are convinced that this summit will end without agreement and it will be necessary to convene another at least. "An agreement would be as rare as a sunny day in Brussels in February," ironizes a diphilomatic source after Monday's meeting.
Commissioner Hahn believes it would be a mistake to waste more time. "With the agreement everyone wins," he said. And he recalled that if December 31 is reached without a new budgetary framework "there will be a legal vacuum" that can harm all Member States, whether they are net contributors or recipients. Community sources recall that 2020 is the last exercise of the current budgetary framework and, therefore, this year's budget could not be extended (by twelfths) in 2021.
"The time has come to decide the budget and decide what Europe we want," urged Andreja Metelko-Zgombić, Secretary of State for European Affairs of Croatia, country that this semester presides the EU Council of Ministers.