The EESC warns that a weak long-term EU budget would undermine competitiveness, cohesion, agriculture and democracy. The Committee calls for a stronger, fairer and future-proof multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2028 to 2034.
Luca JAHIER (Civil Society Organisations - GR III/Italy)
Presentation of the priorities of the Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council on the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) by Mr Constantinos Masonos, co-chair of the MFF Ad Hoc Working Party
The EESC emphasises that peace must remain a core EU priority and cautions against focusing solely on military threats while overlooking other serious risks to human life. It stresses the importance of diplomacy for conflict resolution and crisis prevention wherever possible.The EESC supports a comprehensive, inclusive European defence strategy that supplements military readiness with civil preparedness. It endorses the European Commission’s Joint white Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030 and calls for a coordinated EU approach that treats defence, peace and security as shared public goods, underpinned by strong legal, institutional and financial frameworks with democratic oversight.
A comprehensive approach is needed to revive EU competitiveness, requiring a reconsideration of the regulatory framework. Competition policy, particularly market definition, is sometimes criticized for hindering European companies' growth.
Climate change is a matter of urgency and demands a green shift in our economies. To achieve the EU's climate targets, a profound modernisation of the capital stock is needed. This entails a massive expansion of public investments. The need for an EU-level investment fund to finance the green transition is also a matter of economic strength and sustainable competitiveness. One central element of closing the financing gap is an investment friendly reform of the EU fiscal rules. While the reform process is still ongoing and is supposed to be finished by the end of this legislature, it is already clear that the fiscal space for public investments at national level will not significantly increase with the reform.
The EESC supports the EU in its efforts to remain a major independent space power and agrees with it acquiring financial resources commensurate with its ambitions.
The EESC also welcomes the importance attached to "space surveillance and tracking" and to the Govsatcom system, calls for close attention to be given to the project of extracting and retrieving natural resources outside the earth's orbit (space mining) and proposes an appropriate campaign, so that citizens realise the added value of European space activities, which are present in their daily lives.
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