Press Advisories

21. 2. 202022:15

The Prime Minister Discusses the Budget for 2021-2027 in Brussels

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš attended an extraordinary European Council meeting in Brussels on the European Union's multi-annual financial framework for 2021–2027.

On 20 and 21 February 2020, the EU Member State leaders discussed the long-term EU budget for the upcoming period. The summit was opened on Thursday with a debate on the initial proposal tabled by President Charles Michel. According to Prime Minister Babiš, this was unacceptable for the Czech Republic.

“We do not want to allow the next budget to be unfair, to take less developed countries the money for the investments that we obviously need. We will continue to fight for our interests, we have clear arguments. That is why we developed our National Investment Plan for the next 30 years, which represents 8,000 billion crowns, i.e. 320 billion euros,” said the Prime Minister.

The joint negotiation was adjourned due to the diametrically different positions of the Member States, and bilateral negotiations were subsequently held in order to find an acceptable compromise.

“I must say that the meeting was in a normal atmosphere, that we did not shout at each other, and that there was no hostility. In short, each group said its position. Although it came off badly, it does not pose any threat to our economy, to our companies. Now we have the programming period 2014–2020, there we can draw down until 2023, there is the rule n+3,” summed up Andrej Babiš.

The total volume of the budget, the so-called rebates, i.e. discounts on contributions to the budget for some Member States, the issue of new own resources and, for the Czech Republic, priority funding of cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy were the main points at issue.

On the second day, partial sessions of the Member States continued, and a revised draft budget was issued in the late afternoon. However, even there no agreement was reached on this, and thus the European Council will return to the long-term budget at the next extraordinary meeting.  

“The important thing is that we all want the EU to work. Of course, everyone has their own ideas and it was important that we know exactly where the country stands and what requirements and positions it has,” added the Prime Minister.