European Council President Antonio Costa met Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico in Bratislava and said EU leaders must reach agreement by the end of this year on the bloc’s next long-term budget for 2028 to 2034.
Costa stated the visit to Slovakia was the first stop of his “Tour des Capitales”, a series of meetings with EU leaders in their home countries ahead of upcoming European Council gatherings, the European Council reported on Tuesday.
He said the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework — the seven-year budget plan — would require a “completely different architecture” from previous budgets and should put competitiveness, industrial transformation, defence, security and “strategic resilience” at its core.
Costa also declared that the new budget must ensure effective use of funding for cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Policy, which supports regional development and farming across the EU.
He said most EU spending is financed by member states’ national contributions and those payments should be kept “within reasonable limits”, adding that a package of “new own resources” would be needed as part of an overall deal — a reference to revenue streams paid directly to the EU.
Enlargement and upcoming talks
Costa thanked Fico for Slovakia’s “coherent and steadfast support” for EU enlargement, including backing for the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine as candidates for membership, according to the European Council president’s statement.
He said the EU should continue working with candidate countries through a “merit-based process” and “respect all of them equally”.
Costa added that he planned further talks with other European leaders in the coming weeks and described unity among the EU’s 27 member states as a condition for Europe to build greater “strategic autonomy.”
