EU DIVIDE: Sweden Rejects €1.62 Trillion Spending Plan Over 60% Contribution Hike | Times Now World

Well, it's an important moment for Europe to agree on the next seven years' budget. Not an easy moment, because the economy is not doing that great. So having an agreement on the budget on the next seven years is difficult. But it has to be done, and we have to agree. So all of us have to put emphasis on the main aspects for Baltics and Latvia. The most important thing is that we're the eastern flank countries, which are incurring the most damage in terms of economy. The paper of the Commission shows that we incur biggest impact versus the average in Europe in terms of GDP growth because of, as we call it, geographical punishment. But at the same time, we do the most defence spending, so 6.4%. That is the highest in the EU. And that happens on borrowed money, And that is direct fueling of the countries which have military industry. So we directly buy the military equipment from there. At the same time, we have the biggest threat on the border. We still, on the fifth year, we have the record year of pushing back the Russian orchestrated threat on us, on European outside border. So strong economy can only bring a strong defense. So we can have a good defense on borrowed money at the moment. but that's not possible in the long run. The multi-annual budget, and I think this is not even a starting point for these discussions. This is far too big, far too expensive. It would increase the Swedish net contribution by some 60%. That is simply totally unacceptable. The country is like-minded with Sweden. We are providing some 70% of the support to Ukraine and some 40% of the money to the European Union already. So it's simply not acceptable to increase the domestic Swedish contributions even further. So I will simply say no to today's proposals. And this is not a starting point for the final agreement. We need a good multi-annual financial framework. So, of course, everyone wants to make speed, but it's more important to have a good deal than a bad deal. At the moment, the proposal by the Irish presidency is not good enough to reach an agreement, and we have to downsize and modernize this MFF if we want it to be fit for the future.