site.btaPM: EU Budget Is Major Challenge Looming This Year

In response to a question during Friday's Q&A in Parliament, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said that the new EU priorities, including defence and competitiveness, should not come at the expense of policies such as cohesion and agriculture. He was asked by an MP of the ruling Progressive Bulgaria party about whether the Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion Policy could be separated from the EU's overall budget and whether budget negotiations would be finalized by the end of 2026. The Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the EU budget is a major challenge looming this year.

On Thursday, Radev held talks with European Council President Antonio Costa in Sofia to discuss the EU budget, energy and Bulgaria's strategic role in Europe.

Radev said Bulgaria's ambitions are constantly growing, while the country's budget resources remain limited. This has led to diverging views on what the EU's top priority should be amid the complex geopolitical situation and intensifying economic competition. The focus is naturally shifting from traditional policies, such as cohesion and agriculture, toward new challenges. This is why the establishment of a major competitiveness fund is being considered, he said.

"The focus has been shifting toward security and defence for quite some time now. We fully understand these priorities, and there is consensus among all Member States, which was expressed at the latest EU Council meeting," the PM said. At the same time, he noted that the friends-of-cohesion countries, including Bulgaria, insist that the new priorities should not come at the expense of traditional ones, namely cohesion and agricultural policy. 

"Several difficult Council meetings are ahead, and we hope to have an agreement, consensus and an EU budget by the end of the year," Radev said. He added that the major challenge for countries such as Bulgaria is that, while insisting on the development of cohesion and agricultural policy, they must also address the fact that the huge competitiveness fund would have no restrictions based on countries or geographical criteria. Thus the most competitive companies and countries would be able to freely attract substantial funding from the fund, he said.

Radev said Bulgaria had attracted 0.4% of the funding under the competitiveness programme. "Mechanisms must be created to ensure that less developed EU countries and smaller companies have access to the instruments of this major fund, whose parameters are yet to be finalized," he said. Radev also noted that a proposal considers part of excise duties on tobacco to be allocated to the EU budget, which would immediately affect Bulgaria's national budget. The Bulgarian government will be proactive in the process, the PM assured.