POLITICAL COMPROMISE WITH REGARD TO THE EU’S MULTIANNUAL BUDGET SHOULD NOT BE REACHED AT THE EXPENSE OF COHESION POLICY
On 13 November at the European Parliament in Brussels, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Vytautas Leškevičius attended a high-level meeting of the Friends of Cohesion Group. This meeting was also attended by representatives from the EU business organizations and professional bodies.
Participants of the meeting stressed that it was especially important to reach an agreement on the EU’s new multiannual budget aiming at growth, social cohesion and jobs. A particular emphasis was placed on the importance of proper cohesion policy funding in the EU budget for 2014-2020. All participants of the meeting pointed out: the political compromise with regard to the EU’s multiannual budget should not be reached at the expense of cohesion policy.
At the meeting, the Vice-Minister Leškevičius stressed that in order to achieve such important objectives as economic growth, Social Cohesion and jobs, politicians should make necessary brave decisions, i.e., achieve a political consensus on the EU’s multiannual budget until the end of 2012 and agree on adequate funding for cohesion policy.
“Today we saw again that social cohesion was important not only for Governments, but also for both employees and businesses,” the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Leškevičius said.
The meeting was also attended by José Manuel Durão Barroso, the President of the European Commission, and Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament.
15 EU countries are members of the Friends of Cohesion Policy group, including also Croatia, which is to become a member of the EU next year. The negotiations on the EU budget will continue next week at the General Affairs Council and the European Council.
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