Speaking in Dublin, the chancellor called for significant changes to the draft 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework blueprint
DUBLIN – No headings in the EU’s next long-term budget should be exempt from “essential” cuts was the uncompromising message from Friedrich Merz during the first visit to Ireland by a German chancellor since Angela Merkel.
Merz travelled to Dublin on Tuesday for talks with Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin dominated by EU negations on the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
Ireland, as the holder of the rotating Council of the EU presidency, will play a key role in efforts to find a deal on the seven year spending plan before the end of this year. The debate is considered so strategically important for Berlin that it prompted the first visit by a German chancellor to Dublin in seven years.
Merz used the trip to reiterate Berlin’s demand for a fundamental overhaul of both the structure and priorities of the EU’s next spending cycle.
