BRATISLAVA, October 5, (WEBNOVINY) — Senior representatives of fifteen countries of the European Union (EU) and Croatia who attended the Friends of Cohesion meeting in Bratislava on Friday, adopted a joint declaration concerning the shape of the EU budget for 2014-2020.
In the declaration, the countries that are participants in this informal group declare that at a time of crisis the EU needs more than ever to mobilize all the instruments in support of economic growth and job creation. They also maintain they do not see room for further cuts in the cohesion policy beyond what the European Commission proposes and the funds should be directed mainly to the less developed regions and countries. They want the budget negotiations completed until the end of the year, otherwise the drawing of EU funds from 1 January 2014 would be threatened.
„I consider today’s meeting as very successful,“ said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, for whom this was one of the shortest summits he had seen in the EU. As he further noted, the meeting was well prepared in advance and the text of the joint declaration was also discussed ahead of the meeting. „The task of the summit was only to confirm the positions, as expressed in this document,“ he said.
The Slovak prime minister earned words of praise for preparing the meeting from the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, who expressed his support for the joint declaration. „I want to highlight the personal involvement of Robert Fico, the prime minister who is a clear spokesperson of the Friends of Cohesion group,“ said Schulz. He considers the joint declaration of fifteen heads of government of EU members a huge success.
Prime Minister Robert Fico said the Slovak government supports the original budget proposal made by the European Commission. It proposes in the EU budget for the next seven-year period total expenditures of EUR 1.033 trillion, of which EUR 339 billion are for cohesion policy. Compared with the current EU budget, this is EUR 15.8 billion, or about 4.5 percent less. EU Member States which are net contributors to the common budget, that is Great Britain, France, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Sweden, are seeking to reduce the total amount of the EU budget.
The informal group of Friends of Cohesion consists of fifteen EU member states: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain. Croatia’s accession to the EU is expected on July 1, 2013 after ratification of the Accession Treaty by all members of the European Union.
SITA