Bulgaria supports the EC in seeking additional funding

Bulgaria is inclined to agree to higher national contributions of the member states to the common coffers of the European Union due to the need for additional financing of priority projects. Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov officially expressed this position at the meeting of the European Council in Brussels.

"We prefer this option because the alternative is either no funding for the projects, some of which are very important for us, such as on the topic of migration and protection of the external borders, or to take funds from other programs such as cohesion, for the common agricultural policy or Horizon Europe, which we do not want to be affected," the Prime Minister said in Brussels.

If an increase in contributions is accepted, in practice Bulgaria will not feel it, because according to the migration and external borders policies of the EU, it will receive more than it will bring into the EU with the increased contribution.

In the debate on the revision of the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework, the Member States have united around several priorities that reflect the new political challenges. This is about providing more support to Ukraine, providing additional resources in areas such as migration and external border management, as well as disaster relief. It is being discussed how to finance these additional needs - whether with new funds that will be provided in solidarity by the member states, or by redistributing the available funds.

It will assess to what extent a reallocation of funds within the current EU budget is realistic and what the effects on other Union programs would be as an alternative to a potential proportional increase in contributions. If an agreement is reached to increase the size of the long-term EU budget for the period 2024-2027, the national contributions will be determined according to a special methodology in relation to the gross domestic product.