At the end of last week an EUCO special summit was held to finally find common ground in the negotiations for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) within the council. After Brexit and with the Commissions new ambitious working programme in mind, this will be no easy feat. EM Germany took this opportunity to invite its institutional partners to report on the summit and discuss it with representatives from the member organizations. Overall, a panel of seven representatives followed this invitation. Stefan Bredohl from Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and Thomas Westphal from the Ministry of Finance both gave accounts of their institutions’ points of view. They were followed by Jörg Wojahn and Georg Pfeifer the heads of the representations of Commission and European Parliament in Germany. Also, retired former head of the Commission’s directorate-general for budget, Stefan Lehner, who helped draft the Commission’s first budget proposal, evaluated the summit. Last but not least, Dr. Linn Selle, president of EM Germany, critically analysed the result. The report of the event can be found here (in German): https://www.netzwerk-ebd.de/nachrichten/haushaltspolitik-der-zukunft-oder-der-alten-schule/

Current negotiations predominantly revolve around the question of percentage of gross national income to be dedicated to the EU budget. Many countries, Germany among them, argue that they are paying in more than they are getting out. EM Germany tries to contextualize this debate with the financial benefits apart from nominal EU support, where especially Germany profits immensely. It lobbies for contributions to be set substantially above 1% and the end of rebates for large contributors, with a truly solidary Europe that is prepared for the future as its goal. Prior to the summit last week, Selle emphasized that the MFF has to enable the Union to be actionable and assert itself in the world. The press release with her statement can be found here (in German): https://www.netzwerk-ebd.de/mitteilungen/verzicht-auf-deutschenrabatt-ist-unausweichlich-ebd-praesidentin-kommentiert-bevorstehenden-mfr-sondergipfel/