The European Commission adopted the EU budget proposal for 2025, which amounts to 199.7 billion euros, the executive vice-president of the EC in charge of economy in the interest of the people, Valdis Dombrovskis, informed today.

As reported by the MIA correspondent from Brussels, from the total funds in the EU Budget for the next year, 2.2 billion euros are intended for the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III), and 500 million euros for the Mechanism for the Implementation of the Growth Plan of The Western Balkans, as part of the item to support European partners and the interests of the Union in the world.

- The draft budget for 2025 directs funds where they can make the biggest difference, in cooperation and in line with the needs of EU member states and our partners around the world, and to make Europe more resilient and fit for the future for the benefit of its citizens and EU businesses, noted Dombrovskis.

The achievement of such goals will be ensured by encouraging green and digital transitions, by creating new jobs and at the same time strengthening Europe's strategic autonomy and its global role.

The draft budget foresees continued support for the countries of the Western Balkans, for Syrian refugees in Turkey and the wider region of the Middle East, for the countries of the southern neighborhood of the EU intended to deal with migration, as well as for providing stable and predictable support for Ukraine.

It is planned that the annual budget of the EU will be supplemented with about 72 billion euros intended for the fulfillment of the political priorities of the Union, according to the changes made in February of this year in the Multiannual financial framework of the bloc until 2027.

The leaders of the European Union (EU) at the meeting on June 17 failed to agree on the appointment of new heads of the European institutions.

The outgoing President of the European Council, Charles Michel, confirmed the lack of an agreement. "It is our duty by the end of June to agree on the candidates for top positions in the EU and the strategic agenda," Michel said at the end of a working dinner of European leaders.

The heads of state and government had to agree in principle on the names for which there was already an informal agreement.

However, everything changed when the leaders of those countries or governments, coming from the European People's Bloc, asked for a share in the position of President of the European Council.

The President of the European Council is elected by the leaders of the EU for a period of two and a half. According to several sources from the meeting, the European People's Party requested that the mandate of the President of the European Council be divided into two parts of two and a half years, whereby the People's Party will get one of the mandates.

It seems that this was the main stumbling block and the reason why the leaders did not reach an agreement.