Ursula von der Leyen’s warning deserves to be taken seriously. The European Commission President spoke ahead of the summit in Brussels on 15 and 16 October, where the Irish Presidency’s negotiating package is expected to land on the table.
Her message was aimed squarely at the ‘Frugals’. The message to them was clear: reckon with the realities now taking shape and bring a social conscience to the Union’s fiscal policy as a whole. The Frugals, as everyone knows, are the German and Austrian chancellors and the prime ministers of Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden. In a letter to von der Leyen herself, they called for cuts of several hundred billion euros to the Commission’s proposal.
The Commission President tied the budget to the energy crisis, which shows no sign of being temporary. The next long-term budget, she pointed out, has to rise to Europe’s many challenges: defence and security, competitiveness, artificial intelligence, energy infrastructure, raw materials, research and innovation, skills, enlargement and international partnerships.
She also warned that the pressure from energy costs could intensify as winter draws in. That is not something anyone should be playing down. Not in the slightest.
Meanwhile, the EU’s nine Mediterranean countries, the MED9, met in Croatia on Wednesday. They will go to the summit with a common line, as the region faces its own particular circumstances. Here at home, President Nikos Christodoulides is weighing up the situation with his team and keeping the door open to further government intervention. “We’re here. Every day we assess the measures, the data and the prices, and we step in wherever it’s needed…” he said.
We believe new measures are now essential: measures that support people and make their daily lives easier.
The summit will settle it all, as the issues raised by different camps within the EU are thrashed out. What matters most, and what should shape every approach, is protecting people and their standard of living.
European societies are under enormous pressure. The EU must tackle it collectively, and each government must do its part on its own.
