MOSCOW, Oct. 27 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a closed meeting within the framework of the summit, he called on EU leaders to seriously think about limiting spending amid discussions about the allocation of new funds to help Ukraine and the fight against migrants, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the situation.
It is noted that at the meeting on Thursday evening As part of the start of a two-day summit in Brussels, a conflict arose among European leaders among themselves and with the leadership of the bloc over the allocation of funds.
«German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned EU leaders during a tense closed-door meeting that it was time to get serious about reining in the bloc's spending plans at a time when many are pushing for new funding to help Ukraine and fight migration,» the report said. agencies.
Sources said Scholz said during discussions that everyone in the EU is talking about spending but no one is thinking about compromises or opportunities to cut spending. Several European leaders also said there was no political support for new spending, except for the issue of Ukraine, where financing is also already problematic, the agency's sources added. In addition, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban and Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico are against the allocation of new funds to Ukraine.
On Friday night, Politico reported that the leaders of the EU countries who gathered at the summit in Brussels did not were able to agree on funding for Ukraine in the amount of 50 billion euros for the period from 2024 to 2027 due to the position of Hungary and Slovakia.
Earlier, the head of the EC proposed amendments to the multi-year EU budget for the period from 2024 to 2027 , which involve increasing it by 66 billion euros, including assistance to Ukraine, the implementation of migration and refugee programs and strengthening the competitiveness of the union. Of this, 50 billion euros in the form of grants and loans are proposed to be provided over the next four years for financial assistance to Kyiv. In Hungary, the EC's proposal was called frivolous due to the lack of transparency in the use of European money previously transferred to Kyiv.