EU MONITOR: MFF Negotiations: What Czechs think of the latest development

• The original goal of the previous European Commission – to finish the post 2020 multiannual financial framework (MFF) negotiations by the end of the year – is shattered. The December European Council did not reach any final decision, so the earliest deadline is the March EC meeting, with a possibility of slipping into German presidency in the second half of 2020.
• This would leave a very little time for preparation of partnership agreements with the member states, thus potentially leading to disruption in utilization of EU funding. As of now, it seems that the EU has still a long way to go until it reaches agreement over the future MFF. Member states are negotiating not only about the total size of the future European budgets, but also allocations to various headings or system of resources.

Based on the framework position published by the Czech Government, and statements of senior Czech politicians, the main interest of the Czech Republic is reversing cuts in two traditional EU policies – the Common Agriculture Policy and Cohesion Policy. Limiting the reduction in allocations will therefore be focal points of the Czech effort. As far as the total size of the budget is concerned, the Czech Republic sits on two chairs. On one hand, it does not object to an increase, however, it would simultaneously support a smaller budget than stipulated in the Commission´s proposal if this does not threaten the allocations into Cohesion Policy (CP) and Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

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