Orbán’s cabinet: Spain, Portugal, V4 have similar positions on EU budget

Spain and Portugal have similar positions to the Visegrad countries concerning the European Union’s budget, a state secretary of the Hungarian prime minister’s office said on Friday.

Szabolcs Takács spoke to MTI by phone following talks with Spanish and Portuguese officials in charge of EU affairs concerning preparations for the community’s next budgeting period.

“The positions are very similar; we all think that the European Union needs to identify targets and then define the size of the budget,” he said.

Takács said the cardinal question was how the EU can patch up the hole in the budget caused by Brexit, and added that all participants in the talks expressed readiness to increase their EU contributions if necessary. Parties at the talks agreed that the bloc’s cohesion or common agricultural policies should not be harmed by Brexit, he added.

Takacs noted that Brexit impacts Portugal and Spain similarly to Hungary, having large expatriate communities in the United Kingdom.

“We are all interested in reaching an agreement which is fair both for the Brits and the EU,” he said.

Spain, Portugal, and Hungary also have similar positions concerning the importance of controlling the external borders of the EU, Takács said. The three countries have a shared interest in ensuring that the migration issue is handled outside the EU’s borders and that free movement within the bloc is maintained, he added.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI