What Priorities Should the EU Finance?

The EU is facing a lot of new challenges these days and therefore has to focus on some policy areas that weren’t on its radar in previous years. Migration, security and defense are areas that are discussed on a daily basis and the EU has to react to some new realities. Apart from that, the “old” priorities still remain valid and mustn’t be left aside.

Although the list of priorities broadens, the EU budget doesn’t reflect the situation and doesn’t increase significantly. In addition, and although it is not clear yet what the conditions of the “divorce” will be, Brexit will quite surely have an impact on the EU budget as well. Will the system of Member States’ contributions to the EU budget change? What priorities will be financed in the future by the EU? And how to maximize the effectivity of EU spending? Those were just a few areas discussed at a debate on the Future of EU budget organised on the 6th of October in the European House in Prague.

The EU budget will also surely focus on future social and economic cohesion. Although the results of EU cohesion policy are clearly visible, the convergence rate isn’t as fast as expected in some EU regions. The big question for the Czech Republic is whether it will maintain its position as a net receiver after the current Multiannual Financial Framework, meaning that it will receive more money from the EU than it contributes to the common budget. According to the latest calculations, the Czech Republic will remain a net receiver until 2028. After that, the situation should be more or less balanced.

As for the priorities that the future EU budget should focus on, the panellists mentioned migration and security (both internal and external), economic growth and investment, employment, research and innovation, infrastructure, digitization and climate and energy issues, and education. Another big task for the Czech government is to improve the use of EU funds so that the Czech Republic can take advantage of the full potential of EU support.