Europe is facing serious challenges as Brussels plans major spending cuts, it has been revealed.
Szabolcs Takács, the state secretary for European Affairs, said the issues of migration, economic development and EU enlargement will prove problematic, while the European Commission plans to cut funding for policies whose goals are defined in the bloc’s treaties.
Takács revealed the plans while attending a conference organized by Croatia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Central European Initiative (CEI), a forum of regional cooperation in central and eastern Europe.
According to MTI, the CEI’s member states discussed the EU’s draft budget for the 2021-2027 funding cycle.
The state secretary said Hungary and other central European countries, as well as the Baltic states, considered the European Commission’s proposal to cut spending on narrowing the gaps between member states “worrying”.
He said Hungary believes the EU faces new challenges like migration, unemployment and a decline in competitiveness, adding that these problems required sufficient funding in the next budget. The minister stressed that Hungary’s position is that these funds should not be cut from the cohesion budget because that would weaken a policy that has proven effective over the past decades.