Agreeing the European Union's new budget for the next seven years will be extremely difficult for the bloc's member states. This was stated by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, RIA Novosti reports.
Earlier, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Finland spoke in favor of cutting spending in the 2028-2034 financial plan by hundreds of billions of euros.
On the Slovak TV channel TA3, Fico explained: "Large countries that are contributors to the European Union budget say they will not contribute as much because they have problems at home. Small countries say that the policy of eliminating regional differences and the common agricultural policy must continue. Therefore I think it will be difficult to agree on the budget."
On Friday he also said that some EU states threatened Slovakia with cutting the funds in the new budget intended to eliminate regional differences. The reason is Bratislava's refusal to support a new loan for Kyiv worth 70 billion euros.
By the end of the year the EU must agree on financing Ukraine's needs for 2027, while simultaneously trying to agree the bloc's budget for 2028-2034. Negotiations on this issue have already reached a deadlock: contradictions have arisen between countries demanding spending cuts and those insisting on preserving subsidies.
The next informal summit of EU leaders will be held on November 13 in Dublin. Officially the meeting is devoted to the topic of AI, but it is expected that the main lines of confrontation may be precisely disagreements over the budget and financing for Kyiv. The previous EU summit on October 15-16 did not allow the contradictions to be overcome.
A special summit on this issue is scheduled for November 26-27 in Brussels. If agreement is not reached, discussion will continue at a meeting of the European Council on December 17-18.
Earlier, European Council President Antonio Costa said that the EU intends to cover about two thirds of Ukraine's additional financial needs. At the same time, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria have said they will not participate in the new loan but do not intend to prevent the bloc's other states from providing it.