Brussels’ trillion-euro budget may need expanding, Commissioner says
The EU may need a bigger budget as it fronts up to problems including aid to Ukraine and investment in the military, a senior official said at a conference in Brussels today (29 April).
Brussels’ existing budget comes to just over €1 trilllion, and the Commission is due in June of next year to come out with its plans for the next seven-year period ending in 2034.
There should be a “budget matching our ambition for a stronger, more competitive and secure Europe,” EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said.
"We should avoid getting stuck into the obsession that the budget cannot exceed 1% of EU GNI [Gross National Income],” Hahn added. “Once we are clear and agree on our common priorities, we need to have sufficient funds to cater for common needs.”
Existing rules cap the bloc’s central budget at around one hundredth the size of its overall economy – amounting to about €170 billion per year, of which almost a third is spent on farm subsidies and other elements of the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy.
Many EU members are also seeking to boost defence spending given the war in Ukraine, and the relatively poor and agriculture-heavy eastern nation is also seeking to join the bloc – something that could cost the EU budget around €136 billion over the next seven years, according to the think tank Bruegel.
Related video: ‘Don’t make it a hassle to invest in Europe’: Why has the EU fallen behind its competitors? (Dailymotion)
The EU agreed what Hahn called the “biggest stimulus package in our Union’s history” during the pandemic – but there’s less consensus on how to repay hundreds of billions in common EU borrowing generated from the programme dubbed Next Generation EU.
Plans to raise new EU forms of revenue, based on company profits or green levies, haven’t got off the ground, in part due to taxation being a national prerogative – and that suggests Brussels’ future demands will have to be financed by member states writing still bigger cheques.
Yet many of those EU countries themselves face rocketing budget deficits, and are being pressured by Brussels to bring them back under control after years of pandemic-era laisser-faire.
Hahn cited ways EU investment can aid longer-term growth – such as a reform of labour markets in Spain, and helping to clear an Italian judicial backlog that was hampering business investment.
The commissioner also said he’d like to see a more streamlined and simplified budget rather than a multitude of often overlapping programmes – but there’ll also likely be calls for EU money to come with extra strings attached.
"When we allocate resources, it is essential that our budget actively reinforces the core values that define us,” Belgian foreign minister Hadja Lahbib said at the event, adding there had been “significant progress in recent years” in safeguarding democracy, rights and the rule of law via EU financing tools.
This was likely a nod to recent controversies in Poland and Hungary, where the EU initially withheld significant funds amid concerns over democratic backsliding and judicial independence.
The importance of Brussels’ significant pot of cash is certainly drawing attention from national leaders – including Croatian premier Andrej Plenković, sometimes tipped as rival to incumbent president Ursula von der Leyen when a new Commission is installed in the autumn.
“We should explore the possibility of having a more ambitious budget,” Plenković told conference attendees. "The future of the budget is the future of the Union.”
Portuguese foreign minister Paulo Rangel put the case for expanding Brussels’ resources more succinctly.
“If you don’t increase it, the EU will die,” Rangel said.
Where are they now? Claudio Ranieri’s 13 signings as Leicester manager
Claudio Ranieri a Leicester demigod forever. If someone’s not busy sculpting a statue of The Tinkerman to stand outside the King Power, there is something very wrong in the world.
How he masterminded Leicester City’s Premier League title win in 2015-16 will forever be a mystery to us. The man had Danny Drinkwater in a two-man central midfield (although he was alongside the first man on our list below — a man who essentially counted as three players in one).
We’re taking a look at every player signed for Leicester during the Ranieri era, what became of them, and where they are now. First up, the aforementioned cardio freak:
N’golo Kante
Allow us to remind you, just once more, that N’golo Kante cost Leicester around £5.5million. We really hope the fella who scouted N’golo (as well as Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy for that matter) Steve Walsh got a fat raise.
Kante is in Saudi Arabia in 2024, with Al-Ittihad. He, Fabinho, Karim Benzema, just chilling out in Saudi, picking up a humongous latter-career paycheck. To be fair, if anyone has earned it, Kante probably has. He’s won almost everything football has to offer.
We were a little bit surprised not to see him back in the UK, doing two or three casual laps of the London Marathon recently, but maybe the Frenchman is finally slowing down a little. Comes to the best of us.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 30 French players with the most Premier League appearances?
Yohan Benalouane
Do you remember Benalouane? You know? Benalouane. Tunisian centre-back signed from Parma? Played four league games in the Foxes’ the title-winning season? Missed out on a Premier League winner’s medal by one appearance?
No, yeah, fair enough. Benalouane plays for Novara in the third tier of Italian football, now. Their club badge looks a bit like a Euro 2020 graphic that might have been used for Denmark matches.Related video: Leicester City promoted back to Premier League: Enzo Maresca discusses aims with points deduction... (Dailymotion)
Gokhan Inler
First name like a Dragon Ball character, surname like revenue. Inler was kind of a big signing for the Foxes, having made a name for himself in Serie A with Napoli. Unfortunately, he couldn’t push N’golo Kante or Danny Drinkwater out of the team, so he scarpered after one season.
Played five league matches, though — medal secured.
According to the internet, Inler has been at Besiktas since last year without playing. Retirement incoming.
READ NEXT: 13 of Claudio Ranieri’s most memorable quotes: Tinkerman, Mary Poppins & Dilly Dong…
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to appear for Leicester in title-winning season?
Nathan Dyer
Dyer spent one season out on loan during his 11-year stint at Swansea, and he could not have chosen a better season or a better team to join. Maybe he knew something we didn’t.
Came in picked up a Prem title, said, thanks very much, lads, and skipped back to Swansea for the rest of his career. Retired in 2020.
Daniel Amartey
A man with an exceptionally square jaw, Daniel Amartey. Like a Ghanaian Buzz Lightyear. Amartey joined Leicester halfway through that season. Just scraped enough appearances for a medal. Nice.
He’s only 29, is Amartey, and just last season he left Leicester for Besiktas. It feels right, somehow.
Luis Hernandez
Cards on the table — we have absolutely no memory of Hernandez at Leicester. The Spanish centre-back came up through Real Madrid’s youth system and has played hundreds of games in the Segunda Division.
Only four in the Prem, though. Gutting. No medal for you. Back to Spain.
Hernandez is now in his second La Liga season with Cadiz, following a long stint at Malaga and a couple of years foray in Israel.
Ron-Robert Zieler
Zieler is a full German international, but it never really worked out for the goalkeeper at Leicester. He returned to Germany following his fairly sparse, singular season with the Foxes, and is now a regular with 2. Bungesliga side Hannover 96.
Nampalys Mendy
He just left Leicester last year, Mendy. You just missed him. The little Senegalese who, once-upon-a-time, drew comparisons to Claude Makelele, has hopped across the Channel to Lens in Ligue 1.
FUN FACT: Mendy and Bafetimbi Gomis are cousins.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name all 19 teams that Claudio Ranieri has managed?
Ahmed Musa
Musa has had one of football’s more interesting career paths. The guy has played in Nigeria, England, Russia, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia (before the current revolution), and Turkey.
The lightspeed winger is now in Turkey with Sivasspor. He owns at least two petrol stations in Nigeria — bet you didn’t know that.
Bartosz Kapustka
Kapustka played three cup games for Leicester during the 2016-17 season, and that was all she wrote.
The midfielder has ended up back in Poland, at Legia Warsaw via Belgium and Germany, and that’s about all we have to say on that subject.
Islam Slimani
Do you realise how polific Slimani was for Sporting CP before he signed for Leicester? The Algerian scored 48 league goals in 82 games. It’s no wonder the Foxes snapped him up to try and capitalise on their Prem success.
Slimani didn’t fair quite as well in the Premier League and, after various loans, a return to Sporting, stints in France, Turkey, and Brazil, he’s now with Mechelen in Belgium.
Wilfred Ndidi
Ndidi joined Ranieri’s Leicester in 2017 and simply never left. The Nigerian was signed to plug the physically tiny, yet, in footballing terms, massive hole left by N’golo Kante. He’s done that, by and large, and looks set for a return to the Premier League with the Foxes next season.
That’s if someone else doesn’t come knocking for his services in the meantime… rumours are flying.
Molla Wague
Don’t remember this one at all. Apparently Wague played one game for Leicester in the FA Cup… we could honestly just be getting trolled by our sources, here.
Wague was a centre-back. French-born, played for Mali at international level. Also had loan spells at Watford and Nottingham Forest. He retired at Seraing, in the second tier of Belgian football, in 2022.
Citation needed…
Man City fail in bid to prevent spending cap as Premier League clubs agree to ‘anchoring’
Premier League clubs have agreed in principle to spending cap ‘anchoring’ despite pushback from the Professional Footballers’ Association.
Clubs reportedly voted on Monday to progress to the final stages of a legal and economic analysis of ‘anchoring’ – which will potentially limit expenditure such as player wages, plus agents’ fees and transfer amortisation costs, to a multiple of the central Premier League revenues going to the bottom club.
Man City among trio opposed
The intention of anchoring is to keep the league competitive by preventing the richest clubs dominating.
The drafting of rules around the principle will now also take place, with a view to a further vote at the league’s annual general meeting in June.
Sources close to Manchester United had indicated prior to the meeting they would oppose it and it was reported Manchester City and Aston Villa also voted against, with Chelsea abstaining.
PFA against ‘hard’ cap
The legal analysis is likely to involve discussions with the PFA, and a spokesperson for the union said on Monday: “We will obviously wait to see further details of these specific proposals, but we have always been clear that we would oppose any measure that would place a ‘hard’ cap on player wages.Related video: Why Man City Should Build Everything Around Phil Foden (Dailymotion)
“There is an established process in place to ensure that proposals like this, which would directly impact our members, must be properly consulted on.”
It’s claimed that the agreement in principle will anchor club spending to around five times the TV revenue of bottom club.
Clubs have already agreed to sign up to new protocols to replace the existing Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) that have seen both Everton and Nottingham Forest hit with points deductions this season.
One of the proposals to replace those FFP rules is a ‘luxury tax’, where those clubs who overspend will have a financial punishment which would increase the more they splash the cash.
Editorial: Korea must prevent “crazy housing prices” at all costs
A reconstruction complex in downtown Seoul. / Yonhap News
High interest rates and soaring construction material costs have led to a significant decline in new apartment building permits in South Korea, which is expected to affect housing prices over the next three to five years. The number of apartment permits issued in the Seoul Metropolitan Area fell by 27% over the past two years, from 2022 to 2023, compared to the previous two years between 2020 and 2021. Seoul, in particular, saw a dramatic drop of 45%.
Last year, Seoul issued permits for just 21,284 apartments, the lowest number since records began in 2007. The total number of permits for all housing units, including single-family freestanding homes and low-rise apartment buildings known as villas, amounted to only 26,000. The Yoon Suk-yeol administration had announced an ambitious plan to build 2.7 million housing units in five years, including 80,000 units in Seoul in 2023, but the actual number of permits issued was only a third of this target.
The slowdown in construction, caused by rising costs and interest rates, has nearly halted the country’s public and private apartment supply. Given that building an apartment usually takes two to three years, a shortage of available units in the metropolitan area is expected next year. Meanwhile, the demand for apartments is showing signs of rebounding after a recession-induced downturn. Monthly apartment transactions topped 4,000 for the first time in 31 months, and Seoul apartment prices have been rising for five consecutive weeks. Prices of “jeonse”, Korea’s distinctive housing lease system where tenants pay a large lump sum deposit to live in a home for several years, have also increased for 49 straight weeks. Coupled with the rush to buy homes, we may face another round of “crazy housing prices” reminiscent of the former Moon Jae-in administration. This is a critical situation.
The fastest and surest way to increase housing supply is to revitalize redevelopment and reconstruction efforts. The government has proposed measures such as the “reconstruction fast track,” which allows apartments over 30 years old to be rebuilt without passing safety inspections, and has suggested lowering the age requirement for redevelopment projects, tax incentives for purchasing unsold apartments in rural areas, reviving short-term registered rentals and introducing corporate long-term rental housing. However, these measures require amendments to existing laws, which the Democratic Party of Korea has opposed as “tax cuts for the rich” and “special treatment for the construction industry.” The government’s attempt to remove the residency requirement for apartments with price caps was also blocked by the Democratic Party last year.
Given the expected shortage of housing supply and the Democratic Party’s resistance to easing real estate regulations, the housing supply crisis is likely to intensify. The Democratic Party should heed the lessons from the Moon administration’s missteps and work towards increasing housing supply to prevent another cycle of skyrocketing housing prices.
Man Utd: Schmeichel names Liverpool boss as he tips manager with ‘pedigree’ to succeed Ten Hag
Man Utd legend Peter Schmeichel thinks Thomas Tuchel has the “authority” and “pedigree” to take on the job at Old Trafford if the Red Devils sack Erik ten Hag.
They have struggled for consistency in the Premier League this season with their 1-1 draw against Burnley over the weekend doing little for their league position.
The Red Devils’ hopes of finishing in the top four are officially over with that result with fourth-placed Aston Villa now 13 points ahead with only four games to play.
Man Utd also crashed out of European competition before Christmas, after finishing rock bottom of their Champions League group, but they do have the chance of ending their season on a high with an FA Cup final against arch-rivals Man City to come.
However, Ten Hag’s future remains up in the air and could hinge on their success in the FA Cup final but there is a growing feeling that INEOS will look to make a change in the summer.
A report last week claimed that Man Utd are ‘set to move on’ from Ten Hag with departing Bayern Munich boss Tuchel emerging as a ‘top contender’.
READ MORE: Deluded Ten Hag: Man Utd ‘one of most dynamic and entertaining teams in Premier League’
“I like Thomas Tuchel. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing him a couple of times and his football knowledge is fantastic,” Schmeichel told beIN SPORTS.Related video: We are building something - Erik ten Hag pleads for patience from Man Utd fans (Daily Mail)
“He’s been a little bit unlucky with being at two big football clubs at the wrong time of their history, at times where things weren’t working on every level.
“It’s not that he didn’t do well Chelsea, for instance. I mean, he won the Champions League didn’t he?!
“I just like him, there’s something about him. He projects an authority.
“Never compare people but he’s got the same kind of thing that [Jurgen] Klopp has. You know he’s the boss and you know what he’s doing.”
Schmeichel: Tuchel has that kind of pedigree, he’s got the authority
When asked if Tuchel would be the sort of character who would suit Man Utd, Schmeichel replied: “I’m not going to go there! There’s no way. I know it’s speculative… no, I’m not!”
When pressed for an answer from Richard Keys, Schmeichel continued: “If Manchester United were in the market for a manager then he should be somebody mentioned in that respect. He should be.
“He has that kind of pedigree, he’s got the authority, he’s proven he can win which I think is really important.
“He doesn’t come with a set system, “This is how our football is being played”… yeah, of course, he’s a big-club manager, isn’t he?”
Schmeichel added: “Klopp would be fantastic for Man United as well. I’m not saying that he [Klopp] should be manager!
“I’m just saying that’s the category of manager that Manchester United should have were they to be in the market for a manager.”
