{"id":467204,"date":"2026-10-07T12:01:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T10:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/07\/bilancio-ue-eurodeputati-ppe-contro-merz-e-il-partito-non-sara-colpa-di-bruxelles-se-mancheranno-i-soldi\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T16:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:35:30","slug":"eu-budget-epp-meps-criticise-merz-and-the-party-it-wont-be-brussels-fault-if-there-isnt-enough-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/07\/eu-budget-epp-meps-criticise-merz-and-the-party-it-wont-be-brussels-fault-if-there-isnt-enough-money\/","title":{"rendered":"EU budget: EPP MEPs criticise Merz and the party: \u201cIt won\u2019t be Brussels\u2019 fault if there isn\u2019t enough money\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The European Union\u2019s draft multiannual financial framework (MFF 2028\u20132034) is causing discontent within the European People\u2019s Party (EPP), where divisions and rifts are emerging between the parliamentary group, the party and its leaders. <\/p>\n

The plenary debate preceding next week\u2019s summit of heads of state and government \u2013 which will also focus on the budget \u2013 is bringing these divisions to the fore.<\/p>\n

Danuse Nerudova<\/strong>, a Czech MEP from the European People\u2019s Party, is perhaps the one who best articulates the EPP\u2019s concerns: \u201cThe Parliament wants a strong budget. Three new sources of own resources are on the table: if the leaders do not approve them, they will have to explain why the EU\u2019s financial programmes will be empty, and make it clear that the responsibility for this will not lie with Brussels.<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n

This is a direct attack on the EU\u2019s heads of state and government, who are calling for cuts \u2013 starting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the driving force behind this austerity policy, as<\/span> also reiterated by her Minister for European Affairs and party colleague (CDU, affiliated with the EPP), Gunther Krichbaum<\/a>. It is a move that offers the opportunity to publicly cement a new political alliance with the Socialists in the name of securing more resources. \u201cCan we count on the EPP to defend the budget?<\/strong>\u201d, asks the Spaniard Marco Ros Sempere (S&D)<\/strong>. \u201cCertainly,\u201d assures Nerudova.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/02\/the-eibs-role-and-own-resources-for-5g-pierrakakis-sparks-debate-on-the-eus-multiannual-budget\/ <\/p>\n

But the critical voices within the EPP group are not limited to the Czech MEP\u2019s remarks. Monika Hohlmeier,<\/strong> vice-president of the Budgets Committee<\/a>, a German member of Chancellor Merz\u2019s CUD, denounces \u201cnational self-interest<\/strong>\u201d which is influencing the debate on the forthcoming multiannual budget. \u201cEuropean programmes create synergies,\u201d she insists, in what is an explicit call to abandon the logic of cuts. Similar calls have been made by the Bulgarian Andrey Nokanov<\/strong>, also a member of the EPP: \u201cWe do not have the resources to be stronger and more competitive.<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n

From the Polish MEP from the EPP, Michal Szczerba<\/strong>, a specific request: “Avoid cutting military mobility.<\/strong>” This request drew a cryptic, somewhat critical response from the conservative Roberts Zile (ECR): \u201cThat, too, requires money and investment…\u201d <\/p>\n

The vice-chair of the EPP Group,<\/strong> Sigfried Muresan<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/strong> takes a stand against the leaders, albeit in less strident terms: \u201cAny debate on cuts amounts to weakening Europe, and any cut that weakens Europe is not a basis for negotiation,<\/strong>\u201d for this Parliament, he warns, and not without reason. Because in the never-simple political debate on the budget, various forms of convergence are emerging, dictated by differing interests, but in any case aimed at rejecting the position of the Council and the Member States. <\/p>\n

There is a section of the sovereigntist movement, as demonstrated by the Hungarian MEP Eniko Gyori<\/strong> (PfE), that is ready to vote alongside the People\u2019s Party, Socialists, Greens, and Liberals in favour of a larger budget: \u201cParliament should remain faithful to its proposal to increase by 10 per cent<\/a><\/strong> the budget level, and reject cuts to agricultural policy and cohesion funding,\u201d she emphasises. <\/p>\n

Gyori herself, however, says \u201cno\u201d to the idea of new own resources \u2013 money that goes directly into the European Commission\u2019s coffers without having to be requested from national governments. These are \u201ctaxes,\u201d she argues, and \u201cEuropean citizens do not need new taxes.\u201d It is a pity that the call to approve the new own resources comes from the benches of the People\u2019s Party (EPP), the Socialists (S&D), the Liberals (RE) and even the Greens. These convergences and alliances are taking shape largely due to internal discontent within the European People\u2019s Party, which is at odds with the party and the EU leaders who belong to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The parliamentary debate on the forthcoming multiannual budget has revealed discontent and divisions within the European People\u2019s Party itself, over cuts that a large section of the centre-right disapproves of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":467109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[29807,34410,25755,26708,26990,33394],"class_list":["post-467204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bilancio-2028-2034","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-session-plenary-en","tag-ppe-and","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467205,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467204\/revisions\/467205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}