The Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed the European Union profoundly, the outspoken defence hawk of European People’s Party argues in Wednesday’s podcast by EU Perspectives.
When it comes to the European budget, controversies are never hard to find. This time around, however, all the usual squabbles are overshadowed by the pressing need for more defence spending on the European Union level, Tomáš Zdechovský, a Czech Member of the European Parliament for the European People’s Party, argued forcefully in a podcast by the news portal EU Perspectives.
Insufficient resources
Currently, the European Union operates on a budget of over €2trn. It consists of the EU’s 2021-2027 long-term budget of €1.2trn topped up by about €800bn NextGenerationEU recovery instrument for the years 2021 to 2026. All combined, the annual budget, approved in late 2024, amounts to roughly €200bn. The central question of Wednesday’s podcast was – are these figures enough to cover the bloc’s priorities?
Mr Zdechovský had an answer ready, and a provocative one, as he himself gleefully acknowledged. “It’s not enough for our priorities, because we have different priorities now than we had in the past,” he said. “In the past ten years – out of the total of eleven I’ve spent in the European Parliament – our main focus was on the Green Deal as we had those environmental priorities. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, our priorities absolutely, completely changed. We are now much more focused on money for defence. And if you look at the European Union budget, you see there is not enough money for defence.”
The MEP, who is a member of the Committee on Budgetary Control, made it clear that, in his view, defence does not get anywhere near enough resources. He insisted that this change.
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“Defense is our top priority, and we need to find the resources. When you look at the US and see what’s going on elsewhere in the world, you’ll see it’s really necessary to have much more money specifically for this budgetary chapter,” Mr Zdechovsky stated unequivocally.
Cuts over increases
Having strong opinions of where more money needs to go is one thing, actually finding it in the complex, yet constrained maze of EU budgeting is quite another. Essentially, if more is required from any budget, two ways are available increasing the total sum of the budget, or cut in other areas. The MEP was sceptical to the idea of topping up the budget’s current levels.
“Increasing the budget hasn’t really been a very successful idea. I’ve heard it many times around here over the past ten years, how we will find the new sources. No (member state) wants to pay more, but we all want to receive more from the European budget.”
Instead of increasing the budget, Mr Zdechovský, not one to shy away from bold ideas, spoke in favour of budget cuts. ”The resources exist. Sit me in (Commissioner Piotr) Serafin’s chair and I will find them,” Mr Zdechovsky said in a rather tongue-in-cheek manner of the Polish EU Commissioner responsible for budgeting. But he was deadly serious when bemoaning the established practice among the member states’ attitudes toward the EU budget.
“Member states always say, we need more resources. But at the end they said it’s our own pocket, it’s our budget. And we will not use this money for some new resources of the EU,” the MEP remarked somewhat ruefully.
“We have this huge agriculture policy, which is much more like a social program,” Mr Zdechovský went on. “It’s a deeply-rooted tradition. But we need to change our strategy a little bit. I think maybe now it’s the right time for a discussion if we can live with a bit higher food prices. Food is very cheap, and I don’t think that we – the European Union, that is – can continue to pay everything, everywhere in Europe.”
Difficult realities
Among the podcast’s participants, Mr Zdechovský’s views enjoyed mixed support. Financial Times EU correspondent Andrew Bounds suggested a way around the budget straitjacket. “It’s politically difficult for governments to give more money to Europe because they’re cutting budgets at home. But I wonder whether you might see more groups outside the budget doing things together. It may be that not every member state wants to pool their defence spending, but those that do could perhaps set up a vehicle outside the budget,” Mr Bounds said in reference to the Enhanced Cooperation procedure, designed precisely to enable a group of EU member states (a minimum of nine) to establish advanced integration or cooperation in an area within EU structures but without the other member states being involved. “We have also had this with the the pandemic recovery fund,” the British journalist added.
The contribution of Melchior Szczepanik, head of the Brussels office of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, highlighted the differences among the podcast participants’ opinions. “Defence is, of course, crucial. But it’s also very important to dynamize the EU industry. Money will also be needed to speed up the green transition. And I should also add that the so-called traditional policies, they remain relevant, especially cohesion policy,” the Polish international affairs analyst stressed. “The principle of solidarity, the idea that richer members help those less affluent to catch up is still very important.”
