Tsipras: Multiannual Financial Framework must not sacrifice EU cohesion and convergence

According to government sources, he proposed that new sources of funding be found for MFF priorities without burdening citizens and without sacrificing the principles of cohesion and convergence.

"The Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 of the European Union is the first budget after the crisis and it cannot fail to take the repercussions of the crisis into account," the sources quoted Tsipras as saying.

"There are new priorities, brought by the new challenges. We all agree that we must finance them. Not, however, at the expense of cohesion policy and CAP," the prime minister added.

"What message will we be sending the citizens that have been watching the EU's course with scepticism in recent years, because it is a course that increases rather than decreases inequalities, both between member-states and within member-states," Tsipras asked. Instead of a message addressed to these citizens, the EU would be giving a gift to far-right populists and eurosceptics, ahead of the European elections, he pointed out.

"We must, therefore, find a way to avoid reducing the financing of cohesion policy by 10 pct and CAP by 15 pct. And this will happen if we increase the budget from 1.1 pct to 1.3 pct of European GDP. Also we must find new own resources without burdening our citizens. By introducing a tax on financial transactions and on the large web companies," Tsipras said.

The Greek prime minister also criticised the models used for calculating the amounts for member-states as "illogical" and very unfair for Greece, since it was based on its 2007-2009 GDP - not the current GDP that had dropped by one quarter since the crisis. This was further compounded by capping, which limited annual receipts, he pointed out.

"Apart from the fact that it is unfair to Greece and, as a consequence, I will not accept it, it leads to the following paradox: We have countries that need greater support that do not benefit and countries that do not need support benefiting. In this way, therefore, we are abolishing the principle of cohesion and convergence and reinforcing a policy of divergence. That is unacceptable," Tsipras noted.

Regarding CAP, he said the proposal asks more of farmers and gives less, saying that it should ensure at the present-day levels of funding for both pillars of CAP. He disagreed with an increase in national co-financing, saying that this would once again worsen the position of the countries of the South that were in deficit relative to those with surpluses in the North.