By Gabriel Ani
Stenbock House, 9 May 2024 – The Estonian government has approved the initial opinions for the negotiations of the long-term budget of the European Union and the future of the cohesion policy for the EU budgetary cycle beginning in 2028. These opinions express Estonia’s positions in fields of utmost importance to the nation.
Prime Minister Kaja Kallas stressed that the Estonian budgetary policy of the European Union is focused on security. “We want the budgetary policy of the EU to pay more attention to the risks and challenges of the Russian war of aggression,” she said. “More money must be found in the EU budget for the defence capability of the union. Developing the defence industry and improving military mobility must both be taken into consideration.”
The Prime Minister also emphasized the need to increase the Connecting Europe Facility to build Rail Baltica and the required energy links in the Baltic Sea region. She added that continuing to support Ukraine is also among Estonia’s priorities. “The European Union must be prepared to support Ukraine as needed, either by military or macro-financial assistance, or by contributing to the reconstruction of Ukraine,” she said.
Minister of Finance Mart Võrklaev admitted that the scale of the security-related challenges, support for Ukraine, and developing the cross-border infrastructure of the EU calls for further funds for the budget of the EU. He said, “In the current security situation, Estonia considers it inevitable that the payments made into the budget of the EU must be increased to cover new expenses.”
Speaking on the formation of the cohesion policy for the next period, the minister of finance said that it was very important for Estonia to continue to apply the rule used so far, which limits any steep decreases in the aid allocated to a country which has become wealthier. He also stressed the importance of reducing bureaucracy and the administrative burden at the national, but also at the European Union level.
The framework positions of Estonia are based on the Estonian EU budget priorities for 2023–2025, the past experience of Estonia with EU budget negotiations and with the use of the funds from different facilities, as well as the economic situation of Estonia compared to other Member States.
As at April 2024, Estonia has contributed almost 4.3 billion euros to the European Union. This is the amount which we have paid to the EU budget in the form of contributions. By the end of 2029, our contributions to the EU budget are expected to grow to 6.9 billion euros. This forms almost one per cent of the GDP of Estonia in the years in which Estonia has been a European Union Member State. According to the estimations, we will have received almost 20 billion euros back from the EU budget by 2029.
