The threat of a Czech veto of the EU 2014-20 budget allowed the country to net more money for its poorer regions. The Czech Republic is set to get more than €20.5bn from the EU over the next six years. The figure is still less than the €26.7bn in funding the country received in the 2007-13 budget. Austerity measures are behind the drop, and also the fact, that the country is growing richer. Still, Czech leaders are satisfied. “The negotiations were very complicated, and I do not deny that they were also very demanding,” prime minister Petr Nečas told ČTK. EU leaders agreed on a €957bn budget, a 3-percent drop from the last budget cycle.
Before the summit, Nečas said the proposed volume of money for the Czech Republic was too small and that it threatened to veto the negotiations. Finance analyst for the Next consultancy Markéta Šichtařová said, however, that EU funds do not boost economic growth in the Czech Republic. On the contrary, they slow it down, because they place higher demand on public finances. “Money drawing from the cohesion funds raises the country’s debt, because the state must add its own money to the drawn means,” Šichtařová told ČTK.
