EU budget: Irish presidency sticks to 1.83 trillion euros, defying Merz
Ireland wants to trim the 2028-2034 EU budget by only about 159 billion euros. Germany and other net payers want far deeper cuts, and a quick breakthrough looks highly doubtful.
Graphic: TERRA WORLD NEWS (own graphic based on the sources listed)
The Irish EU Council presidency is sticking to its compromise proposal for the bloc's next long-term budget: about 1.826 trillion euros for 2028-2034, roughly 159 billion less than the European Commission proposed. The distribution of the cuts does not match the ideas of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government; Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria had demanded cuts of several hundred billion euros.
The cuts fall mainly on competitiveness, research, defense, and foreign and development policy, while farm and cohesion funds are largely spared. "Nobody will get everything they wanted," said Irish European Affairs Minister of State Thomas Byrne. One EU diplomat called for "more financial realism and less financial la-la land."
Germany paid a net 21.8 billion euros or so into the EU in 2025, according to dpa. The issue is on the agenda of an EU summit in Brussels next Thursday and Friday.