Seventeen European Union leaders have sent a joint letter to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, demanding that agriculture and cohesion policy be protected in the bloc's next long-term budget. The intervention comes as negotiations on the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) enter a critical phase, with the presidency preparing a revised 'Negotiating Box' to guide talks.
The signatories—representing Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Hungary—stress that the EU's evolving strategic environment should not come at the expense of its foundational policies. 'We fully recognise that the European Union is facing an evolving strategic environment, which brings with it new challenges but also new opportunities for joint European action,' the letter reads, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Romanian President Nicușor Dan as first signatories.
The leaders argue that the next MFF must address security, competitiveness, connectivity, and energy resilience, but insist that these new priorities require additional resources rather than cuts to existing programmes. 'This is not the time for Europe to lower its ambitions,' they write, referring to the overall budget volume proposed by the Cypriot presidency as the relevant baseline.
Defending the CAP and cohesion
The letter singles out the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and cohesion policy as 'long-standing policies' whose objectives are 'more relevant than ever.' They promote convergence between member states and regions, strengthen the single market, and support rural and less developed areas, while also contributing to competitiveness and food security. The leaders warn that the European Commission's current proposal already implies real-terms cuts to these policies, despite an overall increase in the MFF's size. 'A further reduction would not modernise the EU budget; it would merely weaken it and risk undermining public support for the European project,' they argue.
The signatories also call for a more gradual repayment of NextGenerationEU, the post-pandemic recovery fund, which could free up fiscal space in the next budget. They are open to exploring limited and targeted European debt instruments for clearly identified strategic priorities, as outlined in their joint declaration of 26 May. However, they firmly oppose the current system of national rebates, which they say was designed to address excessive contribution burdens that have fundamentally changed. Instead, they propose that national contributions be assessed not only by absolute amounts but also by relative prosperity and effort.
The letter concludes with a pledge to work constructively on revenue, including new own resources that are 'genuine, fair, simple and non-regressive.' The leaders say they will carefully assess the Commission's forthcoming proposals on this front. The Irish presidency now faces the delicate task of balancing these demands against the fiscal realities of member states, as well as the broader geopolitical pressures that are reshaping EU spending priorities.
This push comes amid wider debates over EU financing, including Greece's calls for fiscal leeway and France's austerity measures. The outcome of the MFF negotiations will have lasting implications for the bloc's ability to respond to crises while maintaining the cohesion that underpins its internal market.
