Former Finnish PM Antti Rinne (l), former and current EU council chief, Donald Tusk (m) and Charles Michel (r) at an earlier summit. The Finnish budget proposal didn't win friends (Photo: Council of the European Union)

Net payer countries push back on EU budget plans

Green Economy

by Eszter Zalan, Brussels,

EU net payer countries have pushed back after the latest proposal for the seven-year EU budget was put forward by EU council president Charles Michel last Friday (14 February).

Michel's proposal comes ahead of a crucial meeting of EU leaders this Thursday (20 February) and is very similar to the latest plans of the Finnish EU presidency on the overall spending.

For the first post-Brexit EU budget, Michel proposed 1.074 percent of the EU's gross national income (GNI), over a trill...