The plan of the secret meeting on the EU budget became public

France and Germany intend to lead an informal group in the European Union, which is forming an alliance aimed, in particular, against Poland. Expense dispute The EU continues, which informs Gazeta.Pl .

As Politico has learned, Germany, France and the Nordic countries are forming an alliance within the European Union. An informal meeting of their representatives has already been held in Vienna. The goal is to develop a unified strategy for the EU budget for 2028-2034. A behind-the-scenes coalition of rich European countries intends to confront countries such as Poland, Italy and Spain, which support the current budget, favoring the poorer regions of the EU.

The European budget for the next seven-year period is expected to be record-breaking and reach almost 2 trillion euros. Almost half of the budget, 865 billion euros, will be used to bridge the gap between European regions through the so-called Cohesion Fund.

It is important to recall that Poland is the largest beneficiary of the EU budget, for which 123 billion euros have been allocated. If the entire amount of allocations for Poland is maintained during the negotiations, this will be a record amount since Poland joined the EU. France is in second place with just over 90 billion euros, followed by Spain with more than 88 billion euros.

But all the aforementioned rich countries consider the budget too big and want to cut it. After the release of the details of the budget, a spokesman for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz bluntly stated that Berlin "will not be able to accept" the plan in its current form. According to the new budget, Germany will receive only 68.4 billion euros. Sweden and the Netherlands have also officially stated that they will not agree to such a large budget. The EU will demand spending cuts.

According to Politico, Europe is already divided into two camps. One consists of net donors who contribute more to the budget than they receive. Therefore, they want to either reduce the budget or redirect spending to other purposes. Currently, despite internal disagreements, they are developing a common position, which will be announced at the October budget negotiations. This group is led by Germany and France. There is also a second camp — countries called "Friends of Cohesion", which use European mechanisms for equalizing opportunities. Poland is the leader of this informal group.