Lithuania's president sees high probability for EU negotiations on multiannual budget to be postponed

Source: Xinhua| 2018-12-13 23:56:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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VILNIUS, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The current background for the EU negotiations on its new multiannual 2021-2027 budget is complicated thus the process might be postponed after next year's European elections, Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite said on Thursday.

"As regards the upcoming European Parliament's election and complicated situation due to United Kingdom's depart (from the EU), there is a big probability, I would say around 70 percent probability that negotiations will take place only after the new Parliament is elected," Grybauskaite said in an interview with local radio broadcaster LRT.

She was speaking before leaving to the EU summit in Brussels.

In her words, three questions in the budget negotiations are the most important for Lithuania: Brexit, EU's agricultural funding and funding for the decommissioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.

"Lithuania will have to make choices. Usually it is said to the country - 'here is your package and now tell us what is more important to you'. Structural funds, agriculture or Ignalina," Grybauskaite said.

Those EU countries which are the main payers into the budget care a lot about how much they give, therefore, Lithuania will have to decide on its priorities and it will likely happen in 2020, the president added.

The European Commission proposed the draft 2021-2027 budget in May this year and urged the EU to reach the agreement before the European Parliament elections and the EU summit in Sibiu on May 9, 2019.

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