PM Andrej Babiš rejects proposed EU budget revenue sources

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) has described the European Commission’s proposed new revenue sources for the EU’s next seven-year budget as completely unacceptable to Czechia. Speaking before an EU summit in Brussels, he opposed diverting revenue from tobacco excise duties, emissions allowances and the carbon border levy into EU coffers. The Irish EU presidency has proposed a budget eight percent below the Commission’s original plan, but divisions remain. The prime minister questioned whether agreement could be reached by year’s end and pledged to secure maximum funding for Czechia, which he said was increasingly approaching net-contributor status.