BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Germany’s 2024 budget deal could help to unblock talks on the revision of the European Union’s long-term budget to provide money for Ukraine and migration, EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Wednesday.
The 27-nation EU has been wrangling over a revision of its 2021-2027 budget since June, with the European Commission pushing for new money to support Ukraine and migration policies and governments pushing back, saying they are cash-strapped too.
“It is basically a good sign for an EU deal,” Hahn told Reuters in an interview following Germany’s budget deal on Wednesday.
He said the impact on EU budget talks was immediately visible as Germany was less preoccupied by its domestic issues and the dynamic had changed.
“In the COREPER (meeting of ambassadors) and in the corridors it was obvious that they (Germany) are now engaging and of course it’s also not pleasant for them to be criticised for not being active and not playing their role,” he said.
The Commission proposal calls for a total of 66 billion euros ($71.17 billion) in new money from the 27 governments. Much of that would have to come from Germany, which is the biggest EU economy.
Berlin’s spending plans were thrown into turmoil in mid-November by a ruling of Germany’s constitutional court that declared tens of billions parked in off-budget funds illegal.
Since then, the German government had been preoccupied with rewriting its budget, but was relieved by Wednesday’s deal, Hahn said.
“There is a specific responsibility of the biggest country in the Union to play a very active part in this kind of negotiation. In the last couple of months they were literally standing aside,” Hahn said.
($1 = 0.9274 euros)
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; editing by Barbara Lewis)
