Sixteen EU leaders in a letter to Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin, are calling for overall funding for Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to be preserved in the upcoming 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
The letter, dated October 2, is signed by Cyprus President and the leaders of Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The initiative was coordinated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Romanian President Nicu?or Dan.
The letter is addressed to Martin in his capacity as President of the Council of the EU, ahead of the Irish Presidency’s revision of the Negotiating Box, which is expected before October 13, according to CNA information. It was copied to European Council President António Costa, who, following the October summit, takes on a decisive role in the negotiations on the upcoming MFF.
The leaders acknowledge that the EU faces a changing strategic environment, bringing new challenges but also new opportunities for common European action. The next MFF, they say, must enable Europe to seize these while responding to priorities such as security and defence, competitiveness, connectivity, energy security and resilience. This, however, must not come at the expense of treaty-based policies, which they describe as the backbone of European integration. They stress that the total volume set in the Cyprus Presidency Negotiating Box remains the relevant basis for addressing all needs.
Cohesion and the CAP, they note, promote convergence between member states and regions, strengthen the Single Market and support rural and less developed areas. They also contribute to Europe’s competitiveness and food security and provide tangible support to millions of citizens. Both policies, the leaders recall, have repeatedly adapted to economic and social realities.
Citing their Joint Declaration of May 26, they argue that these policies already face reductions in real terms in the Commission’s proposal, despite an overall increase in the size of the MFF. Further cuts would not modernise the EU budget but would weaken it and risk undermining public support for the European project. The new MFF, they add, already entails a fundamental transformation of its structure, programming and approach to spending.
On revenue, the leaders say they stand ready to work constructively, and that new priorities require adequate additional resources while funding for Agriculture and Cohesion is preserved. They refer to proposals for new own resources that would ease direct pressure on national budgets, which should be “genuine, fair, simple and non-regressive”, in line with the May Declaration. They will carefully consider the adjustments to the proposals that the Commission has committed to present.
They also put forward, as options, a more gradual repayment of NextGenerationEU, which could create additional fiscal space in the next MFF, subject to an assessment of its impact on the overall cost of repayment. They add limited and targeted European debt instruments for clearly identified strategic priorities.
The leaders further call for the current system of rebates to be scrapped, arguing it has no place in the next MFF. Rebates were intended to address an excessive burden on the contributions of certain member states, but the circumstances that originally justified them have fundamentally changed, they point out. In assessing national contributions, they say, account should be taken not only of their absolute level but also of member states’ different levels of prosperity and the relative effort required from each.
It is recalled that Denmark, for the first time, included rebates in its own first negotiating package right at the start of the negotiations, in the second half of 2025, breaking with the “classic” process of leaving them to the end.
The signatories say they count on the Irish Presidency to duly take these considerations into account in preparing its forthcoming Negotiating Box, and stand ready to work with the Presidency and all member states towards an ambitious, balanced and adequately financed MFF.
The letter responds to, but also creates tension with, the rival camp of six countries led by Germany, which called in a similar letter for cuts of several hundred billion euros. Finally, the 16 signatories will meet informally on the margins of the European Council on October 15-16.