Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant said that agreeing on a final package by May 2019 on the EU 2021-2027 Budget would be difficult and democratically questionable.

Dr Sant explained that MEPs elected in 2019 would have the democratic mandate to vote on the financial package following the 2019 political campaign and elections.

He was reacting to the financial EU package which was presented at the European Parliament by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Budget Commission Günther Oettinger.

Read: EU launches battle for bigger post-Brexit budget

Dr Sant said there were contradictory factors within the Commission proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework: “Rightly, it features worries about the sizeable gap in EU budgetary resources that Brexit leaves behind. For this reason, the proposal diminishes crucial spending dedicated to cohesion, as well as agriculture.”

The Maltese MEP also refered to the Defence Fund which features prominently among the EU’s new funding priorities.

“Although defence is and should remain a national competence, this new fund could be soon eating from money other long established funding programmes. Moreover, bundling tax-based own resources in the form of a CCCTB within an agreement on the new MFF is dangerous.

"Many countries are clearly against an EU-level system in the field of corporate taxation. This proposal could lead either to conflict or stalemate. Concerning the criterion used when calculating the allocation of cohesion funds, unemployment, climate change and migration will now also be considered as relevant indicators. But the geographic position of regions, especially insularity, is not to be disregarded,” he said.