The two met for nearly two hours in Warsaw, part of a series of capital visits Costa is making before EU leaders gather in Brussels on Oct. 15-16 for a budget summit. At stake is a package worth close to EUR 2 trillion, of which Poland stands to receive EUR 123.3 billion. Costa has now visited half the bloc's capitals, with Madrid, Berlin and Lisbon still ahead of him.
Costa framed the coming months as decisive. "We cannot afford delays", he said, calling on Tusk and fellow EU leaders to finalize an agreement before the year is out so that support can continue flowing to farmers, companies, students and researchers. He said reaching that deal would require full engagement from all sides "in a European spirit" during this critical phase of negotiations.
Poland's priorities: cohesion and agriculture
Tusk described the budget talks as central to Poland's interests, calling the EU's future financial framework "an absolutely key matter" for the country. Building on the European Commission's July 2025 proposal, he said the bloc is now navigating what amounts to a deep shift in budget philosophy, even if it falls short of a revolution.
While backing efforts to sharpen Europe's competitiveness and free up money for security, Tusk cautioned against abandoning the pillars of cohesion policy and farm support, framing both as matters of security and sovereignty as much as economics. He pointed to Poland's own development as evidence of cohesion funding's value, and said he expects negotiators to agree on new revenue streams for the budget — without which, he argued, the Commission's ambitious proposal cannot be sustained.
"A bigger European budget is in the interest of every member state, and certainly Poland's", he said, adding that Poland has been and remains the top recipient of EU funding.
Costa, for his part, credited Tusk's standing in Brussels with elevating Poland's influence, saying the prime minister's experience has helped ensure the country's initiatives carry weight within the bloc.
Costa's listening tour
Costa said the capital-by-capital visits are meant to gauge each government's priorities before the October summit. Looking ahead to the 2028-2034 budget cycle, he identified defense, security, competitiveness, innovation and strategic resilience as priority areas, while insisting the budget must also continue supporting agriculture and other long-standing EU policies.
He also addressed how the budget would be funded, noting that — much like national budgets — the EU's spending plan must stay within members' financial capacity. Contributions from member states, which currently fund most of the budget, need to remain at "a rational level", he said, which is why negotiators are weighing a substantial package of new own resources as part of any final deal.
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Source: PAP