Poland and the Baltic states are like-minded on the future of the European Union budget, the Polish prime minister said on Friday.

Mateusz Morawiecki was speaking in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius where he held talks with his counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. All three Baltic states, like Poland, are members of the 28-nation European bloc.

Regarding EU issues such as the future of the bloc’s budget, the internal market and transport regulations, all four countries “speak with one voice,” Morawiecki told a news conference.

He said: "I am very happy that we have spoken with one voice ... in the context of both the [impending] exit of Britain from the European Union and the [resulting] budget reduction.”

He declared that both Poland and the Baltics “are opting for increasing the [EU] budget, including from [our] own funds if this proves necessary."

Morawiecki also said that the hole in the EU budget created by Britain’s upcoming departure from should be “patched up.”

At the same time, he told reporters that Poland, much as the three Baltics, “underlined the importance of maintaining the role” of agricultural policy and cohesion policy in the new EU budget.

In an earlier statement, ahead of an informal EU summit in Brussels in late February, Morawiecki said that the next long-term EU budget must be built on a “healthy compromise.” He also declared that Poland was ready to accept such a compromise.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, is expected to unveil its post-2020 budget plans in May.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP/IAR