Irish Times discusses how if the Multiannual Financial
Framework (MFF) is approved by all Member States, the Irish
contribution will grow to €760 million a year more – a 10% increase of
their gross national income.
On Tuesday the European Commission presented the proposed MFF for
2021-2027, but full unanimity from all EU leaders is needed for the
MFF to be approved. Which looks unlikely – the plan was greeted with
criticism from many EU members.
Currently, Ireland benefits every year from its ability to trade
freely across the EU, earning ten times its annual contributions:
about €30.7 billion. The figure is still quite low compared to what
Germany and France take in, which is about five times their total EU
contributions.
One of the biggest issues of the proposed plan includes an average
annual increase, over seven years, of the daily cost of the EU to
individual citizens. This means an increase in some of the Member
States’ contributions.
Cuts in the budget are foreseen to come from farm spending and
cohesion funding, which are the largest EU spending programmes.
However, this decision was met with disapproval from the countries of
the “Friends of Cohesion” group, made up of 14 Member States. Full
article in English: