No 335-E
During the discussion on the European Union's next
budgetary period (2014-2020) that took place in Brussels
today, ideas were exchanged regarding the most recent
version of the negotiations packet submitted by EU
presidency Cyprus, which does not yet contain concrete
numbers.
For Estonia it is essential that an agreement on the budget
is reached quickly. "After three years of talking almost
exclusively about the crisis and other negative things,
citizens are awaiting a message from Brussels guaranteeing
that Europe will make investments into economic growth and
employment," said Ambassador to the EU Matti Maasikas, who
represented Estonia at the meeting. "Therefore Estonia does
not think it is right to cut the EU budget, especially at
the expense of the European Union Cohesion Policy, which is
meant to support regions with lower income levels," he
stated.
Estonia made a proposal together with Latvia and Lithuania
that the countries that suffered the most during the
economic crisis should get a higher upper limit on the
amount of Cohesion Funds they can utilise. "It is justified
to allow countries whose GDP has fallen sharply but have
still used EU funds responsibly and found money to
co-finance an opportunity to utilise more Cohesion Policy
funds," Maasikas asserted.
Estonia is continuing to work towards equalising direct
agricultural supports in the European Union. "Support for
Baltic farmers is much less than the European average, and
we would like for changes to this situation, which leads to
unfair competitive advantages and makes people justifiably
upset, to be reflected in the new European Union budget,"
said the ambassador.
Estonia also supports the European Commission's proposal to
create a European Infrastructure Fund for supporting
cross-border infrastructure projects.
Additional information:
Helen Ennok, press spokesperson, Estonia's Permanent
Representation to the EU
+32 474 98 16 57
SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE
+372 637 7654
press@mfa.ee
www.vm.ee
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