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Fico at the EU summit highlighted Slovakia’s budgetary priorities during the MFF discussions

by AI | 18.Dec 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the EU summit on Slovakia’s priorities within the Union’s long-term budget.

Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico at the EU summit on the Union's long-term budget. PHOTO: TASR

Brussels – Slovakia has its priorities in the negotiations on the EU multiannual financial framework (MFF), namely money for Slovak farmers and for eliminating regional disparities. Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico (Smer-SD) stated this on Thursday during the ongoing EU summit, reports TASR’s Brussels correspondent.

“In my speech, I emphasized the necessity of making compromises, otherwise we will not move forward, because the old familiar problem has reappeared between the net contributors to the EU budget and the net recipients from the budget, among which Slovakia also belongs,” Robert Fico described the atmosphere of the European Council negotiations in a post on social media.

Fico specified that Slovakia, in the context of negotiations on the future MFF at the EU level, has its priorities, namely to ensure sufficient funding for Slovak farmers and for eliminating regional disparities.

The spokesperson for the President of the European Council António Costa, referring to the leaders’ negotiations on this topic, recalled that one of the main goals of the summit was to set a timetable for the talks. The debates at the summit confirmed that there is a common understanding that it is important to have a new long-term budget in place right from the beginning of 2028, which means that the member states are to work on reaching an agreement by the end of 2026, if the necessary conditions are met.

According to her, the leaders’ debates also indicated a broad openness to continue working on the creation of the MFF based on a new architecture that modernizes the EU’s long-term budget and provides greater flexibility in its use.

The open topics of further negotiations on the MFF are the financing of agriculture, the role of regions in drawing EU funds, finances for cohesion policy, a fund to support competitiveness, and the introduction of own resources for the EU budget.

The heads of government and state will return to this issue regularly, with the next discussion at the highest level expected at the March EU summit. (18 December)

“Slovakia has its priorities in the negotiations, namely to ensure sufficient funding for Slovak farmers and for eliminating regional disparities.” Robert Fico