EU budget talks move to Dublin with frugal states and cohesion camp still locked in stalemate

European ministers meet in Dublin on Thursday (3 September) to decide which parts of the EU’s next seven-year budget deserve more money and which deserve less. The current Irish EU-presidency has prepared a document hoping to “aid consideration” and smooth over differences that have gridlocked negotiations since June. The aim is to appease two opposing groups of member states while defending a larger budget compared to the current one, albeit less ambitious than the one proposed by the commission. The lay of the land is as follows: the ‘frugal countries’, including Germany, the Nordic countries and the Netherlands, all of which pay more into the EU budget than they receive, want a much smaller budget than the €1.73 trillion tabled by the Cypriot presidency in June. On the other side are a group of member states known as the ‘friends of cohesion’, which includes Spain and Italy and is chiefly concerned with protecting farm subsidies and payouts to poorer regions. The numbers The Irish note sets out how spending would be divided compared to the current seven-year budget. All figures below are in 2025 prices. To read this story, log in or subscribeEnjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives, comment and gift articles. Become a subscriber for as low as €1,75 per week.Read without limitsAlready a subscriber? Login