VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday rejected a call by the European Commission for EU countries to contribute more cash to the bloc’s shared coffers, arguing that extra money should instead be found by making savings from the current budget.
The bloc’s executive issued the call on Tuesday, saying extra contributions should be made through a new dedicated revenue stream calculated on the profit base of companies operating in each country.
Austria’s conservative-led coalition government often argues against what it sees as profligate spending by the bloc and some member states, particularly southern nations like Italy.
“There is a financial framework that runs from 2021 to 2027 within the European Union. That is a thousand billion euros. That is so much money that it must be possible to address the budgetary challenges by shifting funds,” Nehammer told ORF radio.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday, however, that the EU executive had already “used every flexibility, every possibility of redeployment” from existing funds.
The Commission is reviewing the long-term EU budget, which totals around 1% of the bloc’s economic output.
The budget review is necessary to factor into the 2021-27 shared budget the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an energy crisis, rampant inflation and sharp interest rate rises.
“There is definitely a lot of potential in the European Union. When you think that administration alone costs 13 billion euros and, as I said, that there are also many funds that have not been used yet,” Nehammer said, mentioning the EU’s Cohesion Fund and the (pandemic) Recovery and Resilience Facility.
“Doing that should be the immediate priority before demanding new tax funds from member states.”
The funds he mentioned, however, are allotted to individual member states, making it difficult or impossible to reallocate them.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy, with additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; editing by Mark Heinrich)
