The EU unveiled plans Wednesday for a bigger 1.279-trillion euro budget for the seven years after Brexit featuring a controversial move to cut funding for countries that fail to respect democratic standards. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said the proposed budget was a "reasonable and responsible" way to fill a hole left by Britain's departure and spend more on priorities such as security.
But Poland and Hungary, which have both been severely criticised by Brussels over democratic freedoms, are up in arms over the proposal to "suspend, reduce or restrict access" to errant states. "We are proposing a new mechanism that will allow for the protection of the budget linked to risks arising from deficiencies in the rule of law," Juncker told the European Parliament.
The departure of Britain, a net contributor, in 2019 leaves the bloc with what Juncker says is 15 billion euro gap in its accounts, but the EU also wants more money for ambitious projects to unify the remaining 27 member states.
EU Budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said countries would pay 1.114 percent of their annual gross domestic product under the plans, up from one percent in the current 2014-2020 multi-year budget worth 1.0 trillion euros.
Taxes on carbon emissions, plastic waste, and corporations could also contribute 22 billion euros annually, or 12 percent of total budget revenue, the commission said. One of the key proposed cuts is five percent from the Common Agricultural Policy, the largest single area of EU spending and one dear to major farm producer France.
There is also a five-percent proposed cut to so-called cohesion funds, which former Soviet bloc states in eastern Europe are the biggest beneficiaries from. In return, the European Commission wants to spend more on the digital economy, research, defence and protection for the bloc's borders against mass migration, including what one European source says is a quintupling of the border force Frontex to nearly 6,000 people.