EU's new financial framework must be sufficiently ambitious - Mattarella

(ANSA) - ROME, 16 OTT - President Sergio Mattarella said Friday that the EU's next multi-annual budget, which is currently the subject of tough negotiations between member States, must match the bloc's ambitions to face the challenges it has in store as he addressed a meeting of the Arraiolos Group in Slovenia. "The negotiations on the EU's Multi-annual Financial Framework are crucial because the choices we make will define not only the distribution of European resources, but also the level of ambition with which Europe intends to address the transformations currently underway," Mattarella said. "I hope it will be sufficiently ambitious: increasing responsibilities must be matched by adequate tools and resources to support common priorities, strengthen cohesion, and translate political objectives into concrete capacity for action". The Italian president also said it was necessary for the EU to reform its decision-making procedures to enable it to act faster. "As a president who has served over the past 12 years, I have seen a growing awareness that the Union urgently needs more streamlined, faster decision-making processes," he said. "Without swift decision-making, issues on the international arena will be decided by other actors, and Europe will passively suffer the consequences". Individual veto rights currently often hamstring the EU's decision-making process. (ANSA).
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