Europe's Budget Was Built for Yesterday's World
Europe is at a crossroads. War has returned to our continent, instability continues to spread across the Middle East, and geopolitical competition is intensifying around the world. This is not a time for complacency.
Europe needs a budget that reflects these realities. That means increasing investment in security and defence, eliminating wasteful spending, and ensuring that every euro is subject to rigorous oversight.
We should be honest with ourselves: Europe cannot expect to achieve more while spending less. But taxpayers have a right to expect that public money is spent wisely. EU funds must not be lost to corruption, fraud, or projects that deliver little value to European citizens.
That is why greater flexibility must be accompanied by greater accountability. Budgetary decisions should remain subject to democratic scrutiny, while long-term funding must be stable, transparent, and focused on Europe's most pressing priorities.
Terrible Priorities
What should be Europe’s top priority now? Clearly, security. Every person wants to feel safe. That is understandable. The feeling of safety is one of the basic human needs.
Because of the Russian threat, but not only because of it, EU member states and the EU as a whole must start building up their military strength and investing massively in defence and security. We must also say a few things that many people will not like to hear.
First, this will require higher contributions from member states to the EU budget. Second, we will have to save money in other areas. Anyone who talks about new sources of money is either naive or does not understand how the European Union works.
The current priorities in EU financing are truly terrible. In the current long-term EU budget for 2021 to 2027, the money directly allocated to defence is only a small part compared with the money going to agriculture and cohesion policy, which supports poorer regions.
The difference is estimated at 374 billion euros. After twelve years in the Budgetary Control Committee, I believe there is still huge room in the EU budget to spend money much more effectively.
It Is Time to Rethink Our Priorities
This must also apply to spending money from the EU budget. Huge investments in agriculture, regional development, and green policies are now absurdly being made at the expense of European security.
We really cannot afford to finance national projects that bring no added value to Europe. No more money for cycle paths that do not exist, for lookout towers that do not exist, or for any other nonsense. We must fight geopolitical threats, expand infrastructure, invest in security, and insist that Europe must become stronger.
If Europe wants to finance its defence and security, it will have no choice but to cut spending in other areas. The biggest possible cuts are in cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy. These are the areas that take up most of the EU budget. They also create the most opportunities for theft and wasting public money.
We Must Not Finance Nonsense
Financing green projects can also sometimes be a problem. From the point of view of the Budgetary Control Committee, many things in this area are strongly ideological.
For example, there was a major scandal when it was revealed that the Commission had used EU budget money to finance organisations that lobbied for controversial Green Deal proposals. That is also wrong.
We want to finance only projects that truly help the environment. No ideological absurdities that only suffocate the European economy and make people’s lives harder.
Security First
Our security must come first. While some people are still dealing with complete nonsense, many senior representatives of European countries are already sounding the alarm.
They fear that Russia may try to expand its war in the next twelve months through a limited attack on the territory of another European country. The greatest concerns are now, understandably, in northern Europe and the Baltic states.
Of course, the perception of the Russian threat differs greatly among EU countries. There are countries such as Portugal and Spain that do not care very much about Ukraine. They do not share a border with Ukraine, and they see the war there as something far away.
But the consequences of the Russian threat are already being felt across Europe, directly or indirectly. For us in Czechia, just like for Poland and the Baltic states, increasing funding for our defence and security must be more important than anything else.
We Must Change Our Thinking
We must understand that what happened in Ukraine can very quickly happen in another country too. This can happen through both conventional and hybrid scenarios.
Europe’s dependence on American technologies and services, including Starlink, is also a major problem. We are financing someone like Elon Musk, who is completely unpredictable. On top of that, we are sharing information about our satellites. This must change.
Europe can no longer take such risks with its security, rely on such questionable actors, and at the same time support their activities with its own money.
If the European Union wants to survive and be taken seriously in the world, it must radically change its priorities. It must take money away from areas such as agricultural and green policy in cases where Europe as a whole does not benefit.
Agricultural policy and regional development funds give various fraudsters the greatest space to misuse money from the EU budget. Green policy, unfortunately, often allows money to be spent on ideological nonsense.
EU funds must be used properly. They should go mainly to the areas where we are in the biggest trouble. Unfortunately, this is not happening. We must do everything possible to make security and defence an absolute priority. The pointless wasting and stealing of European money must end.
Tomáš Zdechovský
Czech Politician | Member of European Parliament
