'Frugals' demand radical spending cuts and job freeze for the EU institutions
BERLIN – Six fiscally hawkish EU countries on Thursday repeated demands for a drastically smaller future seven-year EU budget at a time when national governments face “painful fiscal consolidation” at home.
Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, hosted a lunch for the leaders of Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Sweden as the negotiations on the European Commission’s proposed €2 trillion EU budget accelerate ahead of an October summit.
“The MFF [Multi-annual Financial Framework] will grow to address our strategic priorities, but it can only do so at a moderate pace,” the leaders said in a statement, adding that the budget must be “reduced by several hundred billion euros”.
Questions about the overall size of the budget, where the funds will be directed, and how the cash pot will be funded remain unresolved, as leaders race to strike a deal by the end of the year ahead of a packed electoral calendar.
