Baltiс States do not fit into EU's new strategy

The leaders of the Baltic countries expressed satisfaction with the funds that were allocated to them under the seven-year EU budget adopted in Brussels. However, there are doubts that people's lives will become better with the help of those funds. The main intrigue of the EU summit in Brussels The EU's seven-year plan was drawn up and agreed upon a quite a while ago. The recovery post-pandemic fund Next Generation EU, which amounts to 750 billion euros, caused most of the controversy during the summit. The European Commission plans to borrow this money from financial markets on behalf of the EU and distributed it in the form of subsidies (390 billion euros) and loans (360 billion euros).The main intrigue was about how much money from this fund would be distributed through loans, and how much - through subsidies. EU donor countries - Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden - won the struggle by reducing their share of subsidies from $500 billion to $390 billion. The Baltic leaders are beaming with satisfaction Thus, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said that Latvia would receive almost 10.5 billion euros from the approved EU budget, which is 39 percent more than was allocated in the previous seven-year period from 2014 to 2020. In addition, if necessary, Latvia will have an opportunity to borrow about 2.5 billion euros more "on very favorable terms."Karins noted that despite the fact that the volume of funds after the UK's exit from the EU was decreasing, Latvia would receive more funds than in the previous period. Latvia will continue to receive more from the general EU budget than it contributes to it - an average of 3.6 euros for each euro contributed, the office of the Latvian Prime Minister said. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, who chaired the republic's delegation at the summit, noted that the EU's multi-year budget would allow Lithuania to implement the path of "welfare state" development. Compared to the previous financial period, Lithuania managed to receive 1.7 billion euros more from EU funds - 14.5 billion euros, he said. According to the press service of the president, for every euro paid to the EU budget, Lithuania will receive four euros of EU aid back.Cohesion funds allocated 6.2 billion euros to Lithuania, and the country will receive 5 billion euros from agriculture funds. The rest of the money will be allocated for the closure of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, the Kaliningrad transit and the development of infrastructure transport projects.Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas said that Estonia would receive 6.8 billion euros from the EU budget by 2027. Of these, three billion euros would be allocated to fund the "policy of cohesion," while the requirement for the co-funding share of projects would decrease - from 45 to 30 percent. This will reduce the overall need for state participation by about one billion euros. For every euro paid to the EU budget, Estonia will receive 2.8 euros over the next seven years. Given the plan for the recovery of the EU economy after the pandemic, the amounts increases to then 3.5 euros per every euro contributed to the EU budget.