The French President called for bigger budget as European Council President Charles Michel prepared to meet leaders ahead of a special summit to broker the 2021-2027 budget. Mr Macron, who has been visiting to Poland to try smooth relations between Warsaw and Brussels, demanded high levels of investment from member states.
He said: “We need to invest massively. A Europe that has a budget of 1 percent of its GDP doesn’t have a real policy.”
Mr Macron admitted his cash calls had not gone down well with other leaders and said he accepted he may not be able to win them over.
Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are all opposed to budgetary increases with Angela Merkel calling for a spending cap and Sebastian Kurz warning of a veto.
But there is also a group of less wealthy EU member states calling itself the “Friends of Cohesion” which rejects cuts in regional funds and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
So Europe is effectively split into two opposing camps ahead of a crunch budget summit later this month.
Mr Michel was meeting a range of influential EU figures from both sides of the divide today including Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Mr Rutte is a steadfast opponent of an enlarged EU budget ad become a cheerleader for the “frugal” EU members who are net-payers to the bloc and are pressing for a much smaller budget than the one proposed by the European Commission.
Insiders claims Mr Michel will have to get Mr Rutte onside if he is serious about reaching a budget deal at the summit that begins on February 20.
Mr Michel said: “I am fully aware that these negotiations are among the most difficult ones we have to face.”
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But Brexit and its impact on EU finances has really put the car among the pigeons with Europe’s richest countries.
Germany has always feared it will be leaned on to to fill the budget gap caused by Britain’s departure from the bloc and has proposed a 1 percent cap so it does not have to dig too deep to make up the shortfall.
Germany Austria’s chancellor Sebastian Kurz threatened to veto the next EU budget if the proposal for countries to increase their contribution to 1.11 percent of GNI is not amended.
He said: “If this proposal is tabled in this way, there will be no approval from us here, and I don’t think from the other EU net contributors either.”