Austria insists on deeper cuts to EU long-term budget

Austrian Minister for European Affairs Claudia Bauer on Tuesday called for deeper cuts to the EU's long-term budget.

EU ministers for European affairs are meeting in Brussels Tuesday for the first time to discuss specific figures for the bloc's multiannual budget for 2028-2034.

Last July, the European Commission proposed a budget of €2 trillion ($2.3 trillion) for the seven-year period, while the EU Council presidency has proposed reducing that figure by around 2%.

However, Bauer, of the Austrian People's Party (OVP), said the proposed cuts do not go far enough.

"For Austria, this is absolutely not an acceptable outcome," she told reporters ahead of the meeting, calling the 2% cut “just a drop in the bucket.”

Austria is part of a "broad alliance of net contributors," Bauer said, referring to EU member states that pay more into the budget than they receive.

She said those countries contribute two-thirds of the EU budget and called for "fair burden-sharing."

In 2025, the EU launched an excessive deficit procedure against Austria after its public deficit exceeded the Maastricht Treaty limit of 3% of GDP.

The minister also noted that Austria had recently presented a two-year national budget that includes a clear fiscal consolidation plan.

Bauer called for the EU's fiscal rules to be applied to the bloc's multiannual budget as well.

Austria's budget deficit stood at 4.7% of GDP in 2024 and fell to 4.2% in 2025.