Dutch Prime Minister criticises increase in EU budget due to support of Ukraine

Brussels should tighten its belt instead of asking EU countries for additional contributions to its multi-year budget. Source: Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, at a meeting of the European Council on Thursday 26 October, as reported by European Pravda, with reference to Euractiv Details: EU leaders held discussions on Thursday about the European Commission's request for member states to contribute an extra EUR66 billion to the long-term budget for 2021-2027, as the EU leadership seeks this additional funding to address the financial challenges arising from ongoing support for Ukraine, migration management, and rising borrowing costs to implement the post-pandemic recovery plan.

Rutte agreed that an increase in the EU budget is "probably" necessary, but he told reporters that "this should be done by reprioritising money within the EU budget".

Quote: "So, our three priorities are: reprioritise, reprioritise and reprioritise," Rutte said. "Just like in the national budget, you have to tighten your belt on other items from time to time. We have to do the same in the Netherlands," the outgoing prime minister added, saying "nobody is looking forward" to providing funds from its budgets for Brussels at a time of great spending pressure.

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Rutte's statement reflected the opinions expressed by various Dutch advisory bodies, which had previously recommended that the government limit its spending after several years of loosening fiscal controls as a result of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

The Netherlands has been one of the fiercest critics of the EU executive's request for additional funds. Despite the general disapproval of the European Commission's plans, Rutte still admitted that he supports the proposed additional funds for Ukraine as "everyone is actually in favour of that". Nonetheless, it is unclear whether EU member states will unanimously approve the proposal, as Hungary might attempt to block the adoption of the proposed EU budget during the next EU summit in December.

The European Commission has proposed to increase the EU budget by EUR66 billion by 2027. Part of this budget, up to EUR17 billion, in the form of grants, is supposed to go to Ukraine, and another EUR33 billion are to be provided to Kyiv in the form of loans. The remaining funds are needed to cover higher interest payments, the EU's migration policy and to stimulate investment in critical technologies.

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