Pekanov: Irish EU budget draft spares cohesion and farm funds
The deputy prime minister calls the €1.6 trillion draft "a step in the right direction" but criticises a 25 percent crisis reserve and a shorter deadline for spending the money.
Archive image · Photo: Xavier Lejeune / European Union, 2026 / EC - Audiovisual Service / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The Irish presidency of the EU Council has tabled a new draft of the 2028–2034 multiannual financial framework worth €1.6 trillion. That is about €100 billion less than previously planned and 8 percent below the European Commission's proposal, but still 30 percent above the current budget, BNT reported. Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov wrote on Facebook that cohesion and Common Agricultural Policy funds would not be cut, except for one small sub-fund, calling the draft "a step in the right direction".
According to BNT, compared with the Commission's draft the Irish plan foresees 3 percent less overall for regional development, agriculture and fisheries, and 13 percent less for competitiveness and defence. Pekanov lists as weaknesses the plan to hold back 25 percent of national allocations as a crisis reserve and the cut in the spending deadline from three years to one. He called the continued cuts to Erasmus and Horizon Europe a "big mistake". The "Friends of Cohesion" group has 17 members and Bulgaria will remain active in it, Pekanov said. He has spoken with ministers from Romania, Spain, Poland and France. Talks will likely last weeks, probably months; the budget needs the unanimous approval of all 27 member states.