EU's next long-term budget must respond to priorities, new challenges: senior official

BUCHAREST, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The future Multiannual Financial Framework of the EUropean Union (EU) must respond both to the priorities of the EU and to the unexpected new challenges, First Vice-President of the EUropean Commission Frans Timmermans said here on Tuesday.

"When designing the future Multiannual Financial Framework, you have to make sure that you have the means to address your priorities, but also the flexibility to deal with events, with new challenges that you probably may not be able to predict," Timmermans said.

Timmermans made his remarks at a joint news conference in Bucharest with the Romanian Minister for EUropean Affairs, George Ciamba, after a two-day informal meeting of the EU ministers and state secretaries for EUropean Affairs that ended on Tuesday.

According to Timmermans, the process of identifying priorities has to be conducted "on the basis of where the EU should be going", and, at the same time, one has "to be ready to act when there are new challenges that reality throws at you".

Obtaining an agreement among the member states and then between the EUropean Council, the EUropean Commission and the EUropean Parliament on the Financial Framework is an "extremely complicated operation", he said, stressing that it is now "even more difficult" as an important member state and a net contributor to the EU budget is leaving the EU.

"We are all preparing for a future that will be challenging, but also promising," said the official, calling on the member states to make sure that the EU is in a position "both internally and externally" to respond to all the challenges, to use the opportunities, to make a success of the fourth industrial revolution.

The debates in Bucharest aim to provide an appropriate framework for a comprehensive reflection on the key priorities that should be reflected in defining the future strategic vision of the EU, reported official Agerpres news agency.

It said the discussions in Bucharest are timely in view of the debates to be held at the informal summit that Romania will host in Sibiu, central Romania, on May 9, in preparation for the adoption at the EUropean Council in June 2019 of the fundamental lines of the future 2019-2024 Strategic Agenda of the Union.