Romania's president argues for cohesion, agriculture funds in the negotiations for EU budget

Romanian president Klaus Iohannis, in a statement issued after the EU summit in Brussels, on February 21, stressed the importance of cohesion and common agricultural policies in the context of the negotiations for the European Union’s next multiannual financial framework, arguing their essential role for the development and modernization of the Union, News.ro reported.

Iohannis said that these two policies have an important contribution to the fulfillment of the new objectives assumed at European level, such as those in the digital field and climate change, according to Romania’s Presidential Administration.

EU member states have kept their "differences in approach" at the Brussels summit, which has failed to reach an agreement on the EU budget for the next seven years, according to the Presidency’s statement.

The two pillars of the internal market, namely the cohesion funds and the common agriculture policies, have been broadly advocated by the new member states, while the so-called donor countries that have a positive contribution to the budget have argued in favour of green policies, digitisation and technology.

The former group of countries, informally making up the group named Friends of an Ambitious Europe advocate for a national contributions in amount of 1.16% of Gross National Income (GNI) that would also support the financing of ambitious objectives (green, digitalisation, technology), while the more developed EU states stick with a 1% of GNI and the channeling of the existing resources towards the new objectives.

(Photo source: Presidency.ro)