Six demand EU cuts; Finland defends farms

Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Finland and Sweden want "several hundred billion euros" taken out of the Commission's proposed 2028–34 EU budget. In a letter dated 28 September, they asked for that cut to appear in the draft Ireland is writing now (Euronews, Irish Times). The letter does not say which programmes should lose money, and Finland's prime minister is already defending his country's farm share.

The leaders sent the letter to Irish prime minister Micheál Martin. Ireland currently chairs the governments' budget talks, a job that rotates among member states. No official copy has been published, so its contents come from outlets that saw it.

The request is broad. According to Euronews, the six want every spending area to find savings while money moves toward defence, competitiveness, innovation and migration control. As reported, the letter names no precise sum and no programme to cut. Neither did a joint statement the same six issued on 27 August (German government).

A lower opening number, and a veto for everyone

Ireland writes the first figure. Its next step is a revised "negotiating box", the working draft that sets out how big the budget could be and where the money would go. Leaders will argue over it at their summit on 15–16 October (Irish Times). Dublin had already asked ministers on 22 September to say which programmes they consider critical (Irish presidency).

The number the six want to shrink is the Commission's proposal of €1,763.1 billion over seven years. That figure is measured in 2025 prices, which strips out future inflation, and it includes repayment of the EU's pandemic recovery borrowing (European Parliament).

Every government can reject the final budget. It needs unanimity, so any one of the 27 can block it (EUR-Lex). That veto gives the six their leverage. Governments that depend on farm and regional money hold the same power to refuse a deep cut. The European Parliament must also consent, and its own position is higher than the Commission's.

Farm and regional money is where a cut could bite hardest, though the letter does not say so. The Commission's single fund for cohesion (EU money for poorer regions), agriculture and fisheries makes up nearly half the proposal (Council). Poland's development ministry expects a national envelope of more than €123 billion (Polish government), which helps explain why Warsaw has been drafting red lines (To Brief).

Finland guards its farm share

Some coverage described the letter as an "ultimatum", a word that came from an unnamed diplomat rather than from the letter itself. Petteri Orpo, Finland's prime minister, rejected that label. He said Finland was not seeking cuts to farm subsidies and called protecting its agricultural share a central goal (Yle).

Orpo's position sits awkwardly with a letter asking every area to contribute. If farm spending, one of the largest pots, is shielded, the savings have to come from programmes the six have not named. One signatory cannot exempt farms on his own. Still, he has publicly marked out the ground his country will defend.

Stalling offers the six little. If no new budget is agreed by 1 January 2028, the current one's final-year ceilings roll over until a successor is adopted (EUR-Lex). Money would keep flowing. The new defence and competitiveness programmes the six themselves favour would wait.

The six can push Ireland's draft number down. To get a lower total past 27 vetoes and a Parliament that wants more, they will have to tell their partners which programmes lose, and by how much.