We are facing a big fight for the interest of Croatian citizens in the new EU budget

We are facing a big fight for the interest of Croatian citizens in the new EU budget, said Gordan Bosanac, MP for the party We Can! and a member of the Greens/ESS Group in the European Parliament after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the first outlines of the new Multiannual Financial Framework yesterday.

It is precisely the area of cohesion policy that is one of the most important for Croatia because cohesion funds reduce differences between European regions, the one that is facing the greatest changes, said Bosanac.

‍“It is questionable what future cohesion mechanisms will look like, and planning financial envelopes will be particularly challenging. The European Commission has opted for a new model, the so-called. National and regional partnership plans and I fear that the states themselves will set priorities without sufficient consultation with less developed counties, regions and cities. That's where regions and cities could be big losers.”, said and stressed that such a policy runs counter to the efforts of the Greens/ESF parliamentary group, which advocates a greater role for cities and regions in planning needs from the EU budget.

Also, the paradigm of the competitiveness incentive model is changing, where it is likely that competitiveness programs will be opened to the largest European companies instead of supporting the growth and development of small and medium-sized companies. “There are very few Croatian companies that will then be able to compete with large European companies for funds, and SMEs are likely to be the losers of such budget planning.”, warns.

In addition to the cohesion policy, it is also a major blow to farmers, because nominally the funds for the common agricultural policy are reduced by 20 percent compared to the current budget, which does not take into account the effect of inflation. Although the European Commission has communicated that the national governments themselves will manage the funds intended to support small and medium-sized farmers, the Bosanac believes that it remains to be seen what such aid will look like legislatively in reality. In addition, he recalled, the previous model of agricultural subsidies went hand in hand with the agricultural industry, instead of preserving the lives of farmers in the countryside and protecting the environment through organic agricultural production.

However, as positive developments in the proposal for the new seven-year European budget, he singled out the Erasmus+ package for youth education, increased funding for culture and protection of human rights and media freedoms, and increased funding for research and science through the Horizon programme, for which Croatian scientific institutions will have to be further strengthened and to be able to be the bearers of large projects. He also welcomed the fact that the EC had reiterated its commitment to the rule of law condition for obtaining EU funds, but recalled that the case of Hungary had proved that this mechanism was not effective enough.

‍“We have two years of intense negotiations ahead of us on the new budget. Now we are only at the beginning. The next step is for the Commission to show us MEPs the legislative acts that will regulate how the budget is spent. Only then will we have a real picture of where the new EU budget is heading.”The Bosnian concluded.