Press Advisories

6. 4. 2018 14:40

Premier Babiš met with Commissioner Oettinger to discuss the future EU budget

: Prime Minister Andrej Babiš met with Günther Oettinger, the Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, 5 April 2018.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš met on Thursday, 5 April 2018, with the European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, Günther Oettinger. The theme of the meeting was the form and priorities of the multi-annual financial framework after 2020. EU Commissioner Oettinger also met with the Minister of Regional Development, Klára Dostálová, the Minister of Agriculture, Jiří Milek, and the Deputy Minister of Finance, Lenka Dupáková. The late afternoon discussion was preceded by a meeting of the EU Commissioner with economic and social partners and he also spoke with representatives of both Houses of the Czech Parliament.

EU Commissioner Oettinger visited Prague at a time of finalising works on the proposal of the future multi-annual financial framework that should be issued by the European Commission, after consultations with Member States, on 2 May.

Andrej Babiš explained the Czech priorities for the negotiations to Commissioner Oettinger. "We agreed that we needed a strong budget for a unified and secure EU. We are prepared to support an increase in funding for new priorities such as security and migration. At the same time, we want the cohesion policy and agriculture to remain the key areas into which the majority of funding will be directed. I also said to Commissioner Oettinger that we as the State wish to be the one who decides what specifically the EU funding will be used for in our country, the Prime Minister said after the meeting.

Apart from the content priorities, the meeting also touched upon the possible rise in the total volume of the multi-annual framework in connection with brexit. The Czech government is prepared to discuss the conditions of increasing the EU budget so that the important European policies are maintained and at the same time sufficient coverage is provided to the so-called new challenges such as defence or foreign policy.

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