Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said it will be very difficult to reconcile the conflicting demands of member states on the size and priorities of the next seven-year EU budget.
Mr Martin added that CAP funding is an important subject for many states as EU leaders prepare to discuss the next budget on the second day of an EU summit in Brussels.
Securing agreement between all 27 member states on the size and scope of the budget will be a key challenge for the Irish presidency of the EU, which begins on 1 July.
Under the current Cyprus presidency, the overall size of the proposed €1.8 trillion seven year budget has been reduced, according to the latest negotiations between capitals.
The structure of the budget has been changed with more emphasis on competitiveness and defence, with a shift away from CAP funding and cohesion.
“It is very clear that quite a number of member states are anxious to improve somewhat on the draft budgets proposals around agriculture,” Mr Martin told reporters.
“It will be very challenging because there are a lot of competing demands. The bottom line is that there are some who believe the budget is too high as it is, notwithstanding the Cypriots reducing it to some degree in its negotiating ‘Box’.
“Then there are other pressures in other parts of the budget, so it’s going to be very, very difficult to resolve that fundamental question as to the size of the budget, and is it enough to meet all the competing demands.”
Critically, the structure of the budget will change. Instead of cohesion, agricultural, migration and security being stand-alone budget concerns, there would be a single framework, structured around so-called National and Regional Partnership Plans.
As such, some spending would be switched from cohesion and CAP funding to competitiveness and defence. It’s estimated that so far this will lead to a 20% cut in farm spending.
Mr Martin said those fresh demands largely spring from what he called the existential Russian threat on Europe’s eastern flank and “the consequent necessity to invest in defensive capability there, which has put huge pressure on budgets across the Baltics and other countries.”
He added: “But clearly the two fundamental pillars of previous budgets, CAP and cohesion funding, are still very much on the mind of many member states, and that’s something I picked up on my visiting the various prime ministers over the last while.”
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EU leaders will today discuss potential new revenue streams that could boost the overall budget.
Both the European Commission and European Parliament have made various proposals on what those revenue streams – known as “own resources” – might be, such as a tax on gambling or tobacco.
However, diplomats have said there is very little ground among member states about the best revenue streams to adopt.
“A lot the ‘own resources’ [ideas] will be challenging, it seems to me,” the Taoiseach said. “There are objections across the board to different suggestions. Some of the more recent ones from parliament have got some initially positive responses, but the Commission will have to work up the detail of some of those.”
The Taoiseach said that national contributions to the EU budget, based on Gross National Income (GNI), would remain key.
