{"id":468050,"date":"2026-10-15T12:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/15\/i-paesi-amici-della-coesione-uniti-a-chiedere-un-bilancio-ue-ambizioso-equo-ed-equilibrato\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T13:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T11:05:10","slug":"friends-of-cohesion-countries-unite-in-call-for-an-ambitious-fair-and-balanced-eu-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/15\/friends-of-cohesion-countries-unite-in-call-for-an-ambitious-fair-and-balanced-eu-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends of Cohesion countries unite in call for an “ambitious, fair, and balanced” EU budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The European Union\u2019s budget for the seven years 2028\u20132034 must be ambitious, fair, and balanced. This is the call set out in writing by the 17 leaders of the European Union\u2019s Friends of Cohesion countries in the joint declaration adopted<\/a> following their coordination meeting, organised by Italy and Romania, ahead of the negotiations on the EU\u2019s next Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028\u20132034. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have decided to remain united in the negotiations on the next EU budget around four priorities,<\/strong>\u201d said the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni,<\/strong><\/span> on X<\/a> . The four points highlighted are \u201csufficient resources to address all common priorities; safeguarding cohesion and agriculture in terms of both resources and financing rules; fair contributions from Member States; no to discounts on national contributions.\u201d And even though a meeting between the so-called frugal countries \u2013 <\/span>Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Finland and Belgium \u2013 is taking place at the same time in the European Parliament building, the Prime Minister stresses that the 17 will continue \u201cto work together to ensure these priorities are reflected in the final agreement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Negotiations on the next MFF \u201care entering a decisive phase\u201d, as noted in the joint statement by the Friends of Cohesion, which stresses that the “jointly” reiterated call is for the EU budget to be \u201cambitious, fair and balanced, capable of addressing new challenges while safeguarding the Union\u2019s fundamental policies enshrined in the Treaties.\u201d From this starting point, four priorities emerge. The first is \u201cto preserve the EU budget\u2019s capacity to deliver results<\/strong>\u201d because \u201cfollowing two consecutive cuts, the size of the proposed budget has shrunk to 1.02 per cent of the EU\u2019s GNI (Gross National Income), excluding reimbursements linked to the NGEU (NextGenerationEU) plan\u201d for recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. \u201cWe believe that the final agreement must ensure that the EU budget can address existing and emerging priorities, whilst safeguarding key policies,\u201d the leaders note.<\/p>\n

The second priority is \u201csafeguarding funding allocations, including those for cohesion and agriculture<\/strong>, both in terms of appropriations and implementation.\u201d According to the leaders, \u201cadequate resources must be accompanied by rules that safeguard the specific objectives of these policies, enabling Member States and regions to make effective use of the available funds.\u201d The third priority is \u201ca fairer, non-regressive and balanced revenue system.\u201d In this context, the leaders say they are \u201cready for a constructive discussion on the revenue side, including new own resources.\u201d However, \u201cthe parameters governing own resources<\/strong> \u2013 whether existing or new \u2013 must ensure a fair and balanced distribution of the financial burden among Member States<\/strong>, while eliminating any regressive elements from the revenue system as a whole.\u201d Finally, \u201cno correction mechanism (rebate)\u201d, i.e. the refunds granted to certain Member States, because \u201cpreferential corrections based on GNI have no place in a modern and fair EU budget.\u201d <\/p>\n

The statement makes clear that the 17 leaders are united and resolute on these four points. \u201cWe are committed to maintaining a united front on these four principles throughout the negotiations and to working together to ensure that our shared priorities are reflected in the final agreement,\u201d the statement concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The meeting between the 17 leaders was convened by Italy and Romania ahead of the start of the European Council\u2019s proceedings. Prime Minister Meloni said: \u201cWe will continue to work together to ensure that these priorities are reflected in the final agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7874,"featured_media":468032,"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":[36240,36241,27335,36242,26064,33394],"class_list":["post-468050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-amici-della-coesione","tag-bilancio-pluriennale-2028-2034","tag-council-en","tag-frugali","tag-giorgia-meloni-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468050","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\/7874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468051,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468050\/revisions\/468051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}