The EU has started negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027, which sets out the available resources and political priorities for the coming years. However, it is not only Brexit and hence the withdrawal of one of the biggest net contributors, the United Kingdom, that poses a challenge to the new EU budget. The EU's growing responsibilities with regard to controlling Europe's external borders, delivering on internal security and financing tasks related to migration must also be taken into account. How should the EU adapt its budget to these challenges and new priorities? Does linking EU funding to conditions such as respect for the rule of law or the fight against corruption serve as a good reorientation of EU budgetary policy? And what are the next steps in the budget negotiations?
These are just a few examples of the questions that were discussed during the latest edition of #BarTalkEurope. At the well-attended event in a café in Berlin-Kreuzberg, interested young professionals from politics, business, media and science followed the presentations of Pola Schneemelcher and Jörg Haas (Research Fellow and Affiliate Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute - Berlin). First, Jörg Haas explained how the EU budget and the MFF work. Pola Schneemelcher subsequently focused on the European Commission's current proposals for the new MFF. Lucas Guttenberg, Deputy Director of the Jacques Delors Institute - Berlin, moderated the stimulating round of questions and the discussion with the participants that followed.
The next edition of #BartalkEurope is planned for spring 2019.
