{"id":3282,"date":"2023-08-29T11:39:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T11:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ukropposition.com\/?p=3282"},"modified":"2023-09-02T05:57:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T05:57:20","slug":"eus-e86bn-budget-battle-casts-shadow-over-ukraine-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/eus-e86bn-budget-battle-casts-shadow-over-ukraine-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"EU\u2019s \u20ac86bn budget battle casts shadow over Ukraine funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Disputes among member states over top-up could threaten flow of war support to Kyiv.<\/h3>\n

EU funding to shore up Ukraine is being held up by fractious disagreements among member states, with worries about strained national budgets and rising costs in Brussels threatening the flow of financial support to Kyiv. Brussels\u2019 requests for a total of \u20ac86bn in additional funding, aimed at easing strains on the EU budget while locking in four years of support to Ukraine, have divided member states and led to calls for reductions and a longer approval timetable, according to people involved in talks. The debate is a key test of western resolve over Ukraine, as war sceptics in Europe and the US begin to point to the limited gains made by Kyiv\u2019s summer counteroffensive against Russia. The latest round of US funding for Ukraine may also face a tricky path through Capitol Hill amid rising concerns about the war and broader disputes over government spending. Brussels proposed the latest package of financing for Ukraine to stretch over four years, in part to insulate Kyiv from political volatility. EU ministers will restart consultations today after their summer break, with support for Ukraine top of the agenda at meetings of defence and foreign ministers. So far, funding negotiations have been complicated by the European Commission bundling together financial support for Ukraine with top-up requirements for the EU budget, including provisions to cover debt interest costs and a salary increase for EU officials. Many member states have said that while the extra financial support for Ukraine is reasonable, the other elements of the package are the result of an internal EU budget management issue that does not merit additional funds.<\/p>\n

Countries such as Germany and the Netherlands have led the resistance, arguing that national budgetary belt-tightening owing to rising interest rates and wage demands should also be reflected in Brussels. \u201cThe timing is not opportune,\u201d said one senior EU diplomat. \u201cGovernments are having to make difficult decisions themselves and now Brussels asks them to contribute more.\u201d \u201cFrankly, \u2018Brussels needs our money to increase Commission salaries in line with inflation\u2019 is not a great domestic political platform for a national leader to take,\u201d they added. The dispute sets the stage for what is expected to be one of the most fraught EU negotiations of the remainder of this year. In June, the commission laid out a \u20ac66bn top-up for the 2021-27 budget, which was funded by member states. Brussels has separately proposed \u20ac20bn for weapons supplies to Ukraine. The \u20ac66bn includes almost \u20ac19bn to cover unexpectedly high interest costs on joint EU borrowing, about \u20ac2bn for administration cost increases including salary increases for officials, \u20ac15bn for expenses related to rising migration and funding for external countries, and \u20ac10bn for initiatives including a new innovation fund. This top-up to the multiannual financial framework (MFF) also includes \u20ac17bn in grants for Kyiv and is supplemented by a package of \u20ac33bn in loans. Together this \u20ac50bn package over four years aims to give the country longer-term budget stability, an approach Brussels has encouraged other donors to adopt.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s larger countries are currently discussing aspects of the MFF top-up with the aim of reaching a consensus position, two officials said, noting that it was likely the debate could drag on towards the end of the year. \u201cDecember will be when these issues all come together and we need an answer,\u201d said a senior EU official involved in the Ukraine funding negotiations. At the same time, the EU\u2019s 27 member states are being asked to together contribute another \u20ac20bn for a Brussels-administered weapons fund designed to guarantee military support to Ukraine for the next four years. That funding pot, envisaged as part of the EU\u2019s contribution to so-called long-term \u201csecurity commitments\u201d to Ukraine designed to protect it against Russian aggression, will be further discussed by defence and foreign ministers from across the bloc this week. Multiple member state officials say that the fund \u2014 part of the EU\u2019s European Peace Facility that has been funding weapons shipments to Ukraine since last February \u2014 will ultimately be given backing thanks to widespread willingness to help Kyiv. But they warned it needed to be factored into the overall financial demands from Brussels and assessed alongside the MFF top-up. \u201cWe all want to help Ukraine, there\u2019s no reluctance to do what is being asked, or even to do more if necessary,\u201d said one senior EU diplomat from a country that had raised concerns over the amounts being requested. \u201cBut the money is all coming from the same pots. Something has to give.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disputes among member states over top-up could threaten flow of war support to Kyiv. EU funding to shore up Ukraine is being held up by fractious [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,19,20,21],"tags":[23,31],"class_list":["post-3282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-ukraine","category-war","category-world","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ukrreality.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}