Brussels plans to shift more than €30 billion in cohesion funding from eastern and central Europe to the southern member states still recovering from the economic downturn. Funding for the Baltic states - barring Latvia, it seems - is to shrink by almost a quarter in the bloc’s budget for 2021-2027, reports the Financial Times (paywall).

The precise figures are still subject to a fierce political debate within the commission, reports FT. Nevertheless, the newspaper claims EU cohesion funding could shrink most, i.e. by 24% for Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Lithuania. Funding for Poland is to shrink by 23%, or €19.5 billion, in the 2021-2027 planning period.

"Overall, the Baltic states and the four central European countries known as the Visegrad group lose around €37bn in the next budget period, while southern states hit by the financial crisis — Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus — receive a €3.7bn increase in 2018 prices," the Financial Times say.

Meanwhile Latvia, like Slovenia and several other countries will see their funding frozen. "Slovakia and Latvia, for instance, would still receive around €300 per person during the 2021-2027 period — three times more than Italian citizens," the newspaper notes.