Global EditionASIA 中文双语Français
World
Home / World / Europe

EU's Juncker calls for bigger EU budget after Brexit

Xinhua | Updated: 2018-01-09 10:31
Share
Share - WeChat
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker delivers a speech at a conference on the EU's next long-term budget after Brexit in Brussels, Belgium, January 8, 2018. [Photo/Agencies]

BRUSSESL - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday called for the European Union (EU)'s 27 member states to pay more money into the bloc's joint budget after Brexit.

Juncker made the remarks at a conference convened by the European Political Strategy Center, the European Commission's in-house think tank.

The president is pushing the EU national governments to lift the imposed cap of 1 percent of EU gross national income being contributed to the bloc's common budget, saying the money is just "one cup of coffee a day" for the European taxpayer.

He said his working hypothesis is that Britain will be leaving the EU in 2019 and the bloc needs to find ways of reacting to the loss of a significant number of billions of euros when a net contributor goes.

"We need more than one percent of GDP if we are to pursue EU policies and fund them adequately," he said at the event.

"I think Europe is more than one cup of coffee a day," he added.

In addition, Juncker said the common agriculture policy and cohesion funds should be modernized and be "flexible", adding he was not in favor of drastic cuts in the two sectors which make up more than 50 percent of the EU budget.

Basically, the EU budget has three main types of "own resources": contributions from Member States based on their income level measured by Gross National Income (GNI), contributions based on Value Added Tax (VAT), and customs duties collected at the external borders of the Union. Among the three types, the first one accounts for over 70 percent of the total EU budget.

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US