Leaders of 17 European Union countries have written to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the current president-in-office of the Council of the European Union, asking him to protect funding for agriculture and cohesion policy in the bloc's next long-term budget. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Romanian President Nicușor Dan were the first signatories. The letter arrived ahead of a revision of the Negotiating Box, the presidency's document for steering and narrowing the budget talks.
The signatories are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Hungary. Negotiations on the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) have entered a decisive phase. The leaders offered what they called "some reflections ahead of the forthcoming revision of the Negotiating Box."
What the Leaders Want
The letter doesn't deny that priorities are shifting. "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," it said. The next MFF, the leaders wrote, should address security and defence, competitiveness, connectivity, energy security and resilience, without undermining treaty-based policies.
On the budget's overall size, they were direct. "Therefore, the overall volume set out in the Negotiating Box of the Cypriot presidency remains the relevant basis for dealing effectively with all these financing needs. This is not the time for Europe to lower its ambitions," they wrote.
Cohesion and Farming at Stake
The signatories say cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) promote convergence among member states and regions, strengthen the single market, and support rural and less developed areas. They also say these policies contribute to competitiveness and food security, while providing tangible support to millions of European citizens.
"We therefore believe that overall funding for cohesion policy and the CAP should be preserved in the next MFF," the letter said. The leaders point out that both policies face real-terms cuts under the European Commission's proposal, even though the MFF as a whole would grow. They argue another reduction would weaken the budget and risk undermining public support for the European project. It wouldn't modernise the budget, they added, since the new MFF already involves a fundamental transformation of its structure, programming and spending approach.
New EU priorities, the leaders said, need appropriate additional resources, while funding for agriculture and cohesion stays protected.
Where the Money Could Come From
The leaders signalled they're ready to work on revenue. They offered to discuss new own resources that would ease direct pressure on national budgets. Such resources should be "genuine, fair, simple and non-regressive," consistent with a May declaration. The leaders said they would assess adjustments the Commission has committed to present.
They also floated two further ideas: a more gradual repayment of NextGenerationEU to create extra fiscal space in the next MFF, subject to assessing the effect on overall repayment cost, and limited, targeted European debt instruments for clearly identified strategic priorities.
On national rebates, the letter took a firm line. The signatories said the current system shouldn't have a place in the next MFF, because the circumstances that justified corrections to some member states' contributions have fundamentally changed. Assessments should weigh both the absolute level of national contributions and each member state's relative prosperity and contribution effort. The leaders said they're open to working with the Council presidency.
Why This Matters: Cohesion funds and the CAP reach rural areas, less developed regions and farming communities, and the letter says millions of Europeans benefit directly. If those budgets shrink in real terms while defence and competitiveness claim a larger share, the leaders warn public support for the EU itself could erode. The signatories link the fight over numbers to what the Union delivers to citizens. Their call for fair, non-regressive own resources and an end to rebates also puts the budget's funding on the table, not just its spending. How the Irish presidency revises the Negotiating Box will show whether the bloc can finance new strategic priorities without hollowing out the policies that tie its poorer and rural regions to the single market.