President of European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker gives a speech during a meeting at the Charlemagne Building in Brussels on January 8, 2018 | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images Juncker calls for higher payments to post-Brexit EU budget Countries will need to spend more ‘if we are to pursue European policies and fund them quite adequately,’ Commission president says.

EU countries should pay more into the bloc's long-term budget, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a high-level conference on Monday.

With the U.K.'s departure expected to leave a gap of at least €9 billion per year, Juncker said the remaining EU members would have to pay more to finance existing and new priorities. While he did not peg a specific amount for the increase, Juncker called for abandoning the EU's longstanding benchmark of 1 percent of economic output.

"We need more than 1 percent of European GDP, quite clearly, if we are to pursue European policies and fund them quite adequately," Juncker said, opening the conference on the bloc's next Multiannual Financial Framework, which will run from 2020 to 2027.

The bloc's total annual economic output is roughly €20 trillion, or about €17.5 trillion, not counting the U.K. The bloc's most recently agreed annual budget is €160.1 billion.

In calling for the unspecified increases, Juncker urged policymakers to first lay out their policy ambitions and then turn to the question of how to finance those goals rather than setting a top-line limit on spending and fitting priorities into that cap.

"We need to agree first on objectives, what we want," Juncker said. "From there, we will be able to see how to provide the financial means."

Despite the hole that will be left by Brexit, EU officials are under pressure to increase spending on numerous fronts, including on border protection and other issues related to migration, and also to protect EU regions against expected economic losses as a result of Brexit.