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In Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves' judgment the European Union is getting an affordable and realistic budget for the next fiscal period.
Estonian president: EU got realistic budget
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"The European Union is about to get for the next seven years an affordable and realistic budget that supports the unity of the community. The Council meeting that ended on Friday shows the ability of EU heads of government to reach a good agreement," the president said in answer to BNS' question. Ilves voiced the hope that the European Parliament too will pass the budget.
The head of state expressed gratitude to Estonian diplomats and politicians "for businesslike and smooth cooperation ahead of and during the budget negotiations" as well as to farmers whose backing helped politicians stand up for bigger agricultural subsidies. Ilves noted that support to Estonian farmers is indeed set to increase or more precisely, get closer to the EU average.
"Increasing funding of research and innovation is essential for whole Europe. Of importance to us here on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea is the Connecting Europe Facility that will physically connect the Baltic states with the rest of Europe, be it by a high-speed rail link or power connections. Let's build Rail Baltic, the new EU budget tells Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and our closest partners in this project Poland and Finland," Ilves said.
European leaders reached agreement on the union's framework budget for the next budgetary period the size of which is approximately 960 billion euros and the share of Estonia in it is 5.89 billion euros, the State Chancellery said on Friday.
The 960 billion euro budget for the period 2014-2020 was agreed by EU heads of state and government after marathon talks late on Friday afternoon. The sum is just one percent of the bloc's gross national product. Estonia's share in the new financial framework, 5.89 billion euros, is almost 907 million euros more than in the budget for 2007-2013.
"Despite the overall cuts, Estonia can consider itself a clear winner in the talks," Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said.