Greece and Italy abstained from voting for the EU budget for 2017, considering the final compromise proposal tabled by the Slovak Presidency and accepted by the European Parliament on Thursday as unsatisfactory. The UK also abstained from voting due to the Brexit.
Diplomatic sources stated that Greece abstained from the vote of the EU budget for the first time voicing discontent for the reduction of funds originally proposed by the European Commission to support the Mediterranean countries, in the interests of the Eastern European countries and in order to strengthen cohesion actions in countries such as Ukraine.
In particular, despite the overall increase of funding to address the refugee crisis over the last year, Greece looked forward to more support for the refugee than what was finally agreed for the frontline countries. The abstention of the three countries did not affect the voting for the budget by qualified majority.
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