'Positions not matching yet' as EU leaders fight for slice of budget pie
investing.comBy Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — From supporting Ukraine to boosting military might and managing migration, European Union leaders channelled diverging priorities on Thursday as they started debating where to put more money from their shared budget in the next four years.
The EU is due to decide in December on a revision of the bloc's 2021-27 budget worth 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trln), which is already strained by emergency spending during the COVID pandemic and since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The bloc's executive proposed that member states chip in more to the shared coffers to provide 50 billion euros to Ukraine and spend another 15 billion on migration.
Budgetary decisions require unanimity and divisions were on display on Thursday as the bloc's 27 national leaders arrived for a summit in Brussels.
«What is on the table today is unacceptable for us,» said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo.
He backed the bloc's continued support for Ukraine but called for a different approach to its funding.
«We ask the Commission and other institutions to look at their own funds and look at the funds that are not being fully used… instead of asking the member states for bigger contributions.»
On the bloc's eastern flank, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that — beyond supporting Ukraine — joint spending should grow for improving EU defence capabilities. Lithuania said 50 billion euros for Ukraine was not enough.
In the south, Greece pleaded for more money for migration as the bloc is pushing to tighten its external borders and reduce unauthorised arrivals from the Middle East and Africa.
«Greece is a country of first reception and needs more European support to deal with the
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