Germany and Spain clash publicly over size of EU's next seven-year budget

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, joined by the leaders of Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland, and Spanish economy minister Carlos Cuerpo used rival POLITICO opinion pieces to argue over the roughly €2 trillion size of the EU's next seven-year budget. Cuerpo wants it set at 2% of EU GNI, with extra funds for agriculture, defence and competitiveness, and a delay in post-Covid debt repayments to free up €11 billion a year, while capitals push to protect national priorities before an informal end-of-year deadline and elections in France, Italy, Spain and Poland next year.