Cyprus and 16 other EU countries call for agricultural and regional funding to be preserved in the EU budget

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and the leaders of 16 other EU countries have signed a joint letter to the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. They are calling for funding for cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Policy to be preserved in the European Union’s next multiannual budget for 2028–2034.

The letter was signed by Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Estonia. The first to sign it were Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Romanian President Nicușor Dan.

“Europe must allocate sufficient resources to its new priorities while preserving funding for cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Policy,” the letter states. In the signatories’ view, both programmes are already being cut in real terms under the European Commission’s proposal, even as the overall budget grows. “Further cuts will not modernise the EU budget; they will only weaken it and could undermine public support for the European project,” the leaders warn.

In addition, the 17 countries propose abolishing national rebates on contributions in the next budget and gradually repaying the debt incurred by the NextGenerationEU recovery fund, freeing up funds. The letter builds on a joint declaration adopted by these countries on 26 May.

For Cyprus, strong cohesion and agricultural policies mean balanced regional development, support for rural areas and a competitive agricultural sector, the Cypriot government stressed. It also recalled that the negotiating framework for the budget, prepared during Cyprus’s Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2026, remains the basis for further negotiations.