“A more frugal EU budget may not necessarily be modern,” he said in the opening speech of the Commission’s annual budget conference.
“The risk is that those new aspects of modernity will be the first ones to be chopped.”
The frugals are pressuring the new Irish Council presidency, which will broker the budget negotiations, to pursue deeper overall cuts while protecting spending on defense and competitiveness.
They also dismissed Cyprus’ proposed cuts, arguing that they disproportionately targeted their priority areas.
In his speech, Serafin also warned that smaller collective EU spending might result in a higher bill for national governments.
“Too often, a disunited approach means a higher bill: more duplication and fewer economies of scale,” he said.
“In many areas, the alternative to European spending is not no spending at all. It is national spending.”