‘Unacceptable’: Germany rejects von der Leyen’s €1.8 trillion EU budget plan

BERLIN — The German government has already signaled sharp opposition to the EU budget proposal, a day after European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen presented the plan in Brussels.

“A comprehensive increase in the EU budget is unacceptable at a time when all member states are making considerable efforts to consolidate their national budgets,” said Stefan Kornelius, spokesperson for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government in Berlin late Wednesday. “We will therefore not be able to accept the Commission’s proposal.”

The Commission proposed a central EU budget of €1.816 trillion for the seven-year period from 2028. That figure would represent a major increase in the EU’s spending power compared with the current budget that has run since 2021.

The Commission, among other items, presented three new taxes targeting electric waste, tobacco products and high-turnover companies to repay the post-Covid debt, which is estimated to cost €25 to €30 billion per year.

“We also do not support the additional taxation of companies proposed by the EU Commission,” Kornelius said in Berlin.

“We must maintain the Commission’s reform approach and the budget’s focus on new priorities. This course is the right one to make Europe strong for the future,” he added.

Merz has repeatedly emphasized that, from Berlin’s point of view, EU spending must become more efficient instead of increasing the overall pot of cash.

“We [must] reorganize the priorities in the European budget,” the conservative leader said late last month. “Additional tasks cannot always be linked to additional expenditure … and that is the difficult task we now face.”

The budget needs the go-ahead from all EU countries and the European Parliament by 2027.