Brussels: EU leaders to discuss post-Brexit budget gap and Juncker successor

The leaders of the Union European will have an informal meeting in Brussels on Friday where they will to start negotiations for the future 7-year budget that will not include the financial contribution of the UK. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis will also attend the talks.

The UK’s planned exit from the EU next year will leave a EUR 10 billion yearly gap in spending, according to Bloomberg. This hole will have to be taken into account by leaders of the 27 member states that also have to negotiate the future 2021-2027 budget of the European block.

“There are countries that don’t want to pay more and those that don’t want to receive less money,” said the head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. The EC leader said that most states agree with an increase of the contribution paid to the EU budget, although some countries are skeptical or against this.

Next year, the leaders of the EU27 will meet in Sibiu to prepare the strategic agenda for the 2019-2024 period. The talks will take place when Romania holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council.

EU leaders also have to discuss the successor of the Juncker in the new EC structure. The EU Parliament said that the candidate for the top EU job has to be “Spitzenkandidat”, meaning one of the best ranking individuals selected by the political parties.