Proposed next EU budget slashed by 140 billion euros: Official

Ireland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, suggested Saturday slashing the bloc’s next proposed budget by 140 billion euros ($155 billion), a new draft showed, in a search for a deal.

European Union countries have been wrangling over the size of the next budget, with Germany spearheading calls to cut back an earlier proposal of nearly two trillion euros by Brussels.

Leaders from the 27-nation bloc will meet in Brussels next week to discuss the plan as they seek to reach an agreement on the 2028-2034 budget before the end of the year.

Europe is deeply divided. Germany leads a pack with Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, which want cuts of several hundred billion euros.

But France, the second-biggest European economy and a net contributor to the budget, argues the continent needs sufficient means to match the rising challenges the 27-country bloc faces.

The EU wants to seal it by Christmas, fearing that any delay would push talks into a fraught election year with worries about what eurosceptic victories in France and elsewhere would mean for future dealmaking.

The new draft from Ireland – which used 2025 prices – recommended cutting back the earlier proposal most heavily in the area that covered international aid, with the cut being 17 percent.

Meanwhile, the most sensitive sectors such as agriculture, and funds for regional development were the least impacted with reductions of only three percent.

Proposed spending on bolstering Europe’s economic competitiveness would be cut by some 13 percent and the envelope for EU administration reduced by 12 percent.

The new budget would still far outstrip the EU’s last one, which was worth around 1.2 trillion euros.