Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland, at the Special European Council, taking place on 21 February 2020, in Brussels. www.eudebates.tv/debates/spec... Hard to say at this point if we'll find the solution today. If we want to find agreement everybody has to be flexible. It cannot be the way that some countries want to dictate the outcome. Everybody has to be flexible and try to find consensus. It has to be a consensus of all.
I didn't say two countries. I said the outcome cannot be only the way for some countries, it should be consensus and everybody has to realize this. Finland always tries to be compromise oriented and consensus oriented. I hope we will find an agreement, but at this point it is very hard to say. It looks quite difficult the situation.
We also think that the overall level is too high. This is Finland's position. But I think it's also important that everybody realize that we all have to come forward and try to find compromise together.
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European Council President, Charles Michel shared with the EU leaders a last-minute document drafted by the European Commission with small concessions to each side.
But 25 minutes of discussion in the plenary was enough to see that the EU executive’s attempt to narrow the differences on the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027 was insufficient.
The differences were too big between the net contributors, named the “Frugal Four” (the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden), and a group of 17 countries opposing the cuts to the Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion.
Michel summarised the efforts of the last two days by saying that “as my grandmother used to say, if you want to succeed, you have to try at least.”
He said EU leaders had been “very committed, very determined”. “But it needs not only efforts, but tenacity, constancy, and determination,” Michel added.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen admitted that “we have a long road ahead of us, in order, ultimately, to reach a result.”
But she also warned that if Europe doesn’t complete all the lengthy procedural steps needed by the end of the year, “we will have no budget, we will have no Erasmus program, no resources for research, no resources for regional development or border protection.”
However, Michel did not say when he would convey a new summit to try to reach an agreement among the 27 on the seven-year budget.