BRUSSELS –Britain’s decision to leave the European Union will hit the union’s budget but won’t endanger programs related to Ukraine, EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger said on Aug. 28.
However, the upcoming EU elections and the UK’s impending exit from the union, both to take place in 2019, complicate the adoption of the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), a seven-year document regulating the EU’s annual budget from 2021 to 2027, Oettinger said during a meeting with the press in Brussels late on Aug. 28.
It is not clear whether the current draft of the EU’s main financial document will now be approved before the elections, or will even be approved at all, Oettinger said.
He said that after the UK leaves the EU, the union’s budget would be lose 12 to 14 billion in revenues per year. To compensate for that, EU will have to both seek higher contributions from members, and make cuts.
“How can this gap be closed? Our proposal is: 50 percent fresh money, higher contributions from the 27 members, and 50 percent cuts, the reduction of existing programs,” Oettinger said.
Answering a question from the Kyiv Post, Oettinger said existing programs for Ukraine and the EU’s other eastern neighbors aren’t in danger.
“We reduced the number of programs from 58 to 37,” the commissioner said. “In our programs for Africa, the Middle East, the Western Balkans, our (membership) candidates, and for our Eastern Partnership countries, all together, we have more money than with the existing MFF.
“If this MFF is accepted by the (European) Council and Parliament, we have a lot of room for maneuver to co-finance important future proved projects to support reforms and activities, to co-finance infrastructure investments and so on.”
Günther Oettinger, the European Union Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, speaks to the press in Brussels late on Aug. 28. (Iryna Somer)
Oettinger said that he discussed the issue of the financing of the EU programs for the union’s eastern neighbors at meetings with High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica, and Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides.
Oettinger said the EU has a 50 percent chance of approving the budget before the 2019 European Parliament election, and that despite quitting the EU, the UK is expected to fulfill its obligations to the existing budget, which covers the years from 2014 to 2020. This is the first time an election in the European Union has coincided exactly with the time the multi-year budget must be approved.
Oettinger added that he hopes the European Council summit in December “will address major MFF topics and open up the way for negotiations.”
