Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Sweden said in a joint statement that the Commission’s proposed budget of nearly €2 trillion ($2.33 trillion) for 2028-2034 should be reduced “in a balanced manner” with all areas of spending contributing to cuts.
The headline is very misleading.
Even if they cut the budget by the EUR 400 billion as proposed, this ‘cut’ would represent an increase of around 40% compared to the previous period, because the planned EUR 2 trillion for 2028-2034 is almost double the amount of the previous period.
Also, the EUR 2 trillion would represent 1.26% the EU’s gross national income on average between 2028 and 2034, and, more importantly, the EU budget is complementary to the national budgets.
The article also falls short of details and doesn’t say which programs and projects the demands aim at, for example, how much of the planned activities can be covered by national budgets.